Unfortunately, nothing new to report on efforts to lift the ban on MMA in New York. As I posted here, here, and here, there are proposals to lift the ban (legislative initiatives and Governor Paterson's 2010-2011 budget proposes lifting the ban and estimates revenue of $2.1 M if MMA is legalized). However, no progress appears to have been made on either of these fronts since I last wrote a month ago.
As a refresher, the item to be addressed is the prohibition placed on "combative sports" contained at Sections 5-a of Chapter 912 of the laws of 1920.
First, with respect to the Governor's Budget, "Lawmakers in Albany are two months late in passing a state budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which began April 1." Even when a budget gets passed that the Assembly, the Senate, and the Governor can agree on, remember, it must have a provision lifting the ban on MMA. As I stated before in response to this article, I do not take it as a good sign that the Assembly's version of the budget bill (unlike the Governor's budget and the Senate's version) does not contain a provision amending the law that contains the ban. While the Assembly's version of the budget is not determinative, the Assembly Speaker is very powerful and, assuming he is opposed (it is not clear where he stands, but the fact that the Speaker excluded the provision from the Assembly's version of the budget sheds some light I think), it does not look good.
Second, there is a bill in the Assembly amending Section 5-a, A02009, that is currently referred to the Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development. However, there has been no action taken on this bill to date in the Tourism Committee. While it took until June 3, 2009 for an identical version of the bill to get passed through the Tourism Committee last year, remember that the bill ultimately stalled out in the "Ways and Means" Committee. This necessitated reintroduction of the bill this year -- starting the process all over again.
It is possible, of course, that the budget will amend Section 5-a and it is possible that the bill will get passed through the regular legislative process. However, the fact that there has been no movement on the legislative front and the fact that the Assembly's version of the budget does not contain a proposal to lift the ban, makes me think this will not be the year that MMA comes to New York. I will continue to monitor the situation.
Fight Lawyer
