Business News

La. colleges owed $15M from racing commission, audit says

by Associated Press

A new audit says higher education, which has struggled with budget cuts, has been shortchanged more than $15 million it was owed from the Louisiana State Racing Commission.

A new audit says higher education, which has struggled with budget cuts, has been shortchanged more than $15 million it was owed from the Louisiana State Racing Commission.

The Legislative Auditor’s Office says the money should have been paid from a slice of the license fee on wagers at off-track betting facilities.

The audit was released Monday.

Auditors say under state law the Board of Regents should have received one-third of the license fees collected, a figure tallied at more than $15 million from July 1996 through April 2015.

The racing commission disagrees.

The commission says it didn’t have a “mechanism” for distributing the money to the Board of Regents. And it says the board never sought to collect the funds in the 28 years since the law was enacted.