5:5-39.1. Filing of application; hearing; advertisement; provisional permit; vote on question

Any original application for a permit to hold or conduct a horse race meeting shall be filed with the commission prior to August 1 of any year. An application shall be deemed to be original when filed each time before any such permit has been finally granted to the applicant to hold or conduct a horse race meeting for the first year.

Within 15 days after the filing of any such original application, the commission shall determine whether the same is in due form and meets the requirements of law in all respects; and upon being satisfied thereof, the commission shall forthwith appoint a time, not later than September 15 next, when a public hearing shall be held on such application within the county wherein it is proposed to conduct the race meeting for which the permit is sought, and shall cause a display advertisement, approximately 11 inches by 8 inches in size, to be published at least once in a daily newspaper, and at least once in a weekly newspaper, published, or circulated if none be published, in said county. Such advertisement shall be so published at least 15 days before the date of such public hearing, and shall contain sufficient information to apprise the public as to the purpose of such hearing, the time and place thereof, and the nature of the permit applied for. Such advertisement shall be prepared and placed by the commission but shall be paid for by the applicant. If, after such public hearing, the commission shall act favorably on such application, its determination shall be to the effect that a permit to hold or conduct a running race meeting or a harness race meeting, as the case may be, is provisionally granted pending approval thereof by the legal voters of the county and of the municipality in which it is proposed to hold or conduct such race meeting.

Thereupon, but not less than 30 days before the next ensuing general election, the commission shall in writing certify to the county clerk of the county in which it is proposed to hold or conduct such horse race meeting that such permit has been so provisionally granted; and such county clerk shall cause to be printed, in the same manner as all other public questions to be submitted to the voters are by law required to be printed, upon each sample ballot and each official ballot to be used in such county at the next ensuing general election, the following question:

"Shall (insert running race meetings or harness race meetings, as the case may be) be permitted in the county of (insert name of county)?"

When duly voted upon, said public question shall be deemed to be approved only if a majority of the votes cast thereon by the legal voters of the county and also a majority of the votes cast thereon by the legal voters of the municipality in which it is proposed to hold or conduct such horse race meeting, shall have been cast in favor thereof; and in the event the majority of votes cast thereon in the county and also in the municipality shall have been cast in favor of said public question, the commission shall, at its next meeting to be held for the consideration of applications for dates for horse race meetings after the first year filed prior to October 15 proceed with the application upon which the permit was provisionally granted, in the manner provided by law for the allotment of racing dates for the ensuing year and for the subsequent granting or issuance of a permit to hold or conduct a horse race meeting as authorized by law.

In the event a majority of the votes cast on said public question in the county or in the municipality shall have been cast against said public question, the commission shall in writing notify the applicant that the permit provisionally granted is canceled and thenceforth shall be of no effect, and no permit to conduct or hold any horse race meeting, of the nature designated in the public question so voted upon, in the same county shall be granted unless and until, after a new application filed and public hearing held after public notice and permit provisionally granted (following the procedure hereinabove specified), the same public question shall again have been submitted to the legal voters of the county, and a majority of the votes cast thereon in the county and also in the municipality in which it is proposed to hold or conduct such horse race meeting shall have been cast in favor thereof; provided, however, that the same public question shall not be submitted to the legal voters of the same county oftener than once in 5 years.

The votes cast for or against said public question, whenever it shall appear upon the ballot at any general election, shall be counted and the result thereof returned by the election officials and a canvass of such election had and announced in the manner now provided by law; but the result in each municipality shall be separately tabulated in such return.

L.1949, c. 26, p. 82, s. 1. Amended by L.1972, c. 23, s. 1, eff. May 15, 1972.