State deal: Suffolk OTB can seek bankruptcy

State lawmakers have reached an agreement to permit Suffolk Regional Off-Tracking Betting Corp. to seek bankruptcy -- keeping it from going out of business, supporters said Monday.

"It's a done deal," Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) said. "The significant thing about this is that it saves jobs."

OTB had told lawmakers it would run out of cash by early April unless it filed for protection from its creditors.

Suffolk OTB has been fighting for survival since March 2011 when it filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Churchill Downs -- the venerable Kentucky horse racing track and one of the OTB creditors -- sued to block it. A federal judge ruled in December that bankruptcy authorization had to come through state Legislature and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo first.

The OTB provision was one of the many budget issues affecting Long Island that appeared to be resolved Monday by legislation or agreement between lawmakers. They include:

Funding for an additional track on the Long Island Rail Road line from Farmingdale station to Ronkonkoma, which is part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital budget.

Kevin Law, president and chief executive of the Long Island Association, said the double-tracking will benefit a proposed 50-acre commercial and residential development called the Ronkonkoma Hub.

"This is great news for Long Island," Law said.

Allowing Suffolk and Nassau counties to double the number of red light cameras, adding 50 in each county. The cameras take photographs of the license plates of vehicles that run red lights.

Delaying Cuomo's plan to consolidate the state's 11 regional Department of Transportation offices into six to streamline government for at least a year, according to Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick). Local lawmakers worried that the Long Island office would have been absorbed into New York City.

Appropriating $300,000 to study water quality in the Western Bays region on the South Shore. The salt marshes in the area have deteriorated, causing the closure of more than 15,000 acres of shellfish beds, according to Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst).