view raw text
► — 1 Legislators Settle On Measure MRA Supports Bill Bars License to Any Track Claiming State Tax Exemptions LANSING, Mich., April 30.— State legislators, who talked earlier in the week of a law to prevent the Michigan Racing Association from becoming a charity-operated race track, settled on a bill that had MRA support as they recessed for the week end. The bill, as sent to the floor of the Senate by the. taxation committee, would bar the state from granting a license to any track claiming exemptions from state taxes. "I am firmly in accord with that idea,1 said George Haggarty, MRA executive vice-president. "We want no tax benefits, no tax exemptions." -Haggarty talked the committee out of its original bill, which flatly banned charity racing. As for the revised bill, Senator Carlton Morris, Kalamazoo Republican and chairman of the taxation committee, explained: "We just want to make sure there are no loopholes." Committee members heard Haggarty explain the pending ,000,000 sale of the MRAs Detroit Race Course to Boys, Inc., a charity group headed by Texas .millionaires Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison. Haggarty said that six trustees, including himself, Richardson and Murchison, would determine which charities would benefit. The MRA official said that the sale plan is to buy out the 200 track stockholders! using ,000,000 in loans from Michigan banks and 00,000 from private sources and the ,500,000 in the MRA treasury. "Thats the origin of the ,000,000 figure," Haggarty said.
