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The Washington State Horse Park Authority Board of Directors set up the <br />organization to be run as a commercial operation by an experienced and <br />successful professional manager. <br />G The brganization of the institution be that of a non-profit corporation, avoiding <br />designation as a State governmental entity and thus avoiding the labor and <br />procurement procedures required of State governmental units, <br />0 The Board focus its activities on obtaining funding commitments required for the <br />construction of improvements and the first five years of operation. <br />4 That the Board actively work with existing equestrian organizations to promote <br />the Horse Park projea <br />Our findings are reflected in the national equestrian park picture, where large and <br />medium sized facliitles are typically subsidized around 20% of operating revenues. <br />Only two of twenty-five horse parks break even. <br />Under these circumstances there are several major provisos that must be met before <br />we can recommend that the plans to raise funds for the facility proceed. The first -two <br />are that capital repayment not be required and that property taxes be warned. Third is <br />the requirement that in order to assure successful operation, the Horse Park Authority <br />must recruit a facility manager from the upper 90 percentile of managers and support <br />that manager with top-notch review and assistance by professional equestrian <br />management professionals. Finally, the facility will require subsidization from either <br />private foundations or public coffers, of approximately $80,000 per year. <br />However, the positive economic impacts accruing to Kittitas County and to Washington <br />State add some justification to financially support this endeavor. <br />52 <br />