Bad News for New York MMA Legislation. There's Always Next Year...

Bad though not unexpected news from New York courtesy of the New York Daily News:

ALBANY - The push to legalize ultimate fighting in New York is on the ropes.

Assembly Democrats stripped approval for the wildly popular violent sport from a budget bill that lawmakers will take up as soon as today.

Gov. Paterson sought to legalize mixed martial arts, saying fights could pull in more than $2 million in tax revenue for the cash-strapped state.

"The majority of voices who spoke about this issue in our conference were not supportive of approving it as part of the budget," said Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-L.I.), a fight fan.

Englebright said it's a long shot the Assembly will revisit the issue. The state Senate has already approved the sport.

This shuts the door on what, in our opinion, was the most likely route for passage (through the state budget). All signs point to the Assembly skipping a vote on the bill the Senate already passed.

The political strife, serious budget concerns and truncated legislative calendar won again. But considering New York's financial woes, if this was part of a horse trade in order to get real financial reform you can't be too upset. On second thought, yes we can.

From a purely academic perspective this is a great example of just how hard it is to go from illegal to legal.