HILLSVILLE, PA. Company competes for track

The senate vote on slots at Pennsylvania racetracks could come today.
HILLSVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- Two brothers and their sister are the latest to join the already-crowded field for the state's final thoroughbred horse racing license, proposing a track on family-owned land in Lawrence County.
Carmen Shick and his brother and sister formed a company called Bedford Downs Racing Management and on June 6 applied to the state for the one remaining thoroughbred license to be issued by the state Horse Racing Commission.
The Shicks' plan to build the track on 550 acres of family-owned land is one of seven proposed tracks.
Slot machines
Competition for the license has been fierce because of the possibility that the Legislature will approve a measure to put slot machines at Pennsylvania's racetracks.
Senate negotiators reached a tentative accord that would allow slot machines to be installed at the racetracks, with a vote in that chamber expected as early as today.
Prospects for Senate passage are uncertain, but proponents hope that they will draw enough Republicans whose districts host a racetrack, or will host a racetrack, and the bulk of the 21 Democrats to assemble the 26 votes needed to pass the legislation.
"We expect to vote on it [today], and we expect to be successful," said Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, whose office led negotiations since a Republican lawmaker's proposition failed to gain Democratic support in May.
Some Democrats support the legislation out of deference to Gov. Ed Rendell -- who wants to tax slot-machine revenue to reduce local property taxes and boost state education funding -- while most Republicans are expected to oppose it.
The key provision would require any future buyer of established racetracks to pay the same $50 million fee to the state for a new license.
To become law, the bill would have to pass the Senate and the House in an identical version and get Rendell's signature. Proponents are trying to get the bill passed by the middle of next week, when legislators begin their traditional two-month summer vacation. If it passes, Pennsylvania would become the seventh state -- joining Louisiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Delaware and West Virginia -- to place slot machines at the racetracks.