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Floridas Schools, Needy Aged, Roads j Chief Beneficiaries of Racing Taxes ► State Revenue, 7 932-7 948, Is 5,000,000, According To Hialeah Park Booklet MIAMI, Fla., May 20.— Floridas schools, needy aged and highways have been the chief beneficiaries of racing taxes collected in the state, it is revealed in a booklet published by Hialeah Race Course, the states largest producer of pari-mutuels revenue. The booklet, titled "Racing Builds a Healthier, Happier Florida," is a pictorial report of "how racing dollars are being put to work for the benefit of the people of Florida." A total of 5,000,000 has been collected from Florida racing since 1932, the booklet states, and this amount will be increased in 1949 by an estimated 2,-500,000. Of the pari-mutuel taxes collected in Florida, 65 per cent has come from horse racing; 33 per cent from dog racing, and 2 per cent from the jai alai fronton. Hialeah has contributed 52 per cent of the horse racing revenue. Florida racing revenue goes to the individual county governments and the State Welfare Board for distribution among the needy aged. Each of Floridas 67 counties received 04,248.30 from racing in the period 1932 to 1948. Among the facts revealed by the booklet are: Hospitals have been built in Suwanee, Walton, Okeechobee and Pinellas counties with racing money and Hendry and Clay have assigned funds for a similar purpose. Twenty-one counties are using pari-mutuels revenue for health units and in 20 counties, racing helps pay for the hospitalization of charity cases. Five counties use a part of their money for agriculture, nine counties for pest control and three counties for canals and drainage. Walton County built and operates a farmers curb market with money from Hialeah and other tracks. Ten counties have utilized money from pari-mutuels for new courthouses, or improvements of their old courthouses, and 13 counties have allocated funds for new jails or improvements of old ones. Hillsborough, Dade, Broward, Levy, Volusia and Sarasota counties devote all of their share to schools, and most of the other counties use racing money for public instruction. In addition to the funds distributed through the State Welfare Board, 10 counties make use of pari-mutuel money for assistance for the old people. Manatee, Leon, Duval, Marion, Martin, Orange, Escambia, Palm Beach, Columbia, Putnam and Polk are among the counties which have concentrated their money on _ roads and bridges. Pari-mutuel dollars have been utilized for such special purposes as an airplane hangar, help to veterans through a county service officer, soil survey, a county library, Four-H Club, work, a memorial park, re-establishment of land ownership markers and for direct use by the municipalities of Fort Myers in Lee, Punta Gorda in Charlotte and Apalachicola and Carrabelle in Franklin County.
