Rockingham Park is facing a new challenge, this time from new rules governing budget negotiations in the New Hampshire legislature.

The Senate President, Sylvia Larsen, and House Speaker, Terie Norelli, signed an agreement last week intended to bring unanimity between the two bodies which would include everything they had already agreed on, but would exclude video slots. The House Finance chairwoman, Marjorie Smith, said slots fall outside the agreement.

Given strong past opposition from the House on the slots issue, it appears any agreement on that issue could be reached that might add slots to gubernatorial consideration, according to the Boston Herald.

Slots backer Lou D’Allesandro, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, disagreed. “The only two people bound by that agreement are the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. No one else voted on that. There was never public discussion on that,” he was quoted as saying.

(Harness Tracks of America)