The
2008 Legislative Session in Review
Tech Tax Tanked, High Earners Yanked
Ag Lots Released & Sunday Hunting Expands
by Nancy Hill
The 2008
General Assembly session ended on Monday, April 07, 2008. The
total number of bills introduced was 2,641– 1,014 in the Senate and 1,627 in the
House- as compared to 2,479 introduced
in the 2007 session and 2,856 in the 2006
session. As a whole, Maryland’s horse industry
was neither helped or hurt by any
legislation.
Some of the issues that looked at the
beginning of the 90-day session like they
would be hot just fizzled out. Legislation
to repeal the death penalty died; however,
a bill passed that will establish a commission
to study capital punishment. A compromise
bill to allow speed cameras and
a bill to ban hand-held cell phones while
driving both failed as well. In last month’s
column, I reported that the governor and
legislators would not increase taxes this
year. Well, I was wrong. In exchange for
repealing the sales tax on computer services
(the so called “tech tax”), legislators passed
an increase in the percentage of income tax
that people who earn over $1M per year
will have to pay. As of right now, that tax
will sunset (end) in three years.
The bill
that will ban all “video bingo” machines in Maryland by July 2009 passed
and is expected to be signed by the Governor.
Bills aimed at encouraging or protecting
agriculture faired pretty well (with the exception
of those with large price tags).
Every one of us has been affected this
year by higher electricity rates and gasoline
prices. Unfortunately, our political
representatives have not found an answer
to these problems. They have, however,
managed to help people who are facing
foreclosure because they cannot make
their mortgage payments. Also, in the “unfortunate” column, the bill that would
have automatically given homeowners
their homeowners property tax credit did
not pass. Therefore, all homeowners will
have to apply for this credit. According
to the state, a form is included in
each tax assessment notice to use for this
purpose.
Below is a wrap up of this session’s
bills:
SB 94/HB 1018, Prince George’s
County – Property Tax Credits – Agricultural
Land Preservation Programs.
SB 94/HB 1018, as amended, was passed
by the General Assembly. This law now
authorizes (but does not require) the
Prince George’s County government to
grant property tax credits for land that is
in the program.
SB 418/HB 731, Creation of State
Debt – Lower Susquehanna Greenway
Trail Development.
This bond
bill passed
and will provide a grant in the amount of
$250,000 for construction of trails and
amenities.
HB 840, Washington
County
– Deer Hunting on
Private Property – Sundays, passed
and is expected to
be signed into law
by the Governor.
HB 938, Montgomery
County – Deer Hunting
on Private Lands – Effective Date, passed
and is expected to be signed into law by
the Governor.
HB 976, Agricultural Preservation
Program – Lot Releases.
This
bill has
been signed into law by the Governor and
will allow people whose land is in agricultural
preservation to build on a maximum
two acre lot if they can prove that adjacent
land owned by others is preventing them
from using and enjoying their agricultural
land.
HB 1482/SB 878, Harford County – Deer Hunting on Private Property– Sundays,
passed and will be signed by the Governor.
HB
1506, Task Force to Study Thoroughbred Racing at Rosecroft Raceway.
This bill passed. It will establish a task
force to study the feasibility of holding
Thoroughbred racing at Rosecroft which is
a Standardbred track.
The following bills were withdrawn by
sponsors:
• HB 537, Sales and Use Tax – Exemptions - Construction
of Wells
• HB 557, Video Slot Machines – Revenues
and perations
• HB 655, Natural Resources – Hunting
Licenses – Minimum Age
• HB 1342, Horse Racing – Bred Fund
Supplements
• SB 658, Horse Racing Heritage Act
• SB 962, Public Education – Bridge to
Excellence - VLTs
The following bills were either given
unfavorable reports or died for lack of action:
• SB 175/HB
1289, Maryland
Estate Tax – Exclusion
for Family
Farm Subject to
Agricultural Preservation
Easement
• SB 239/HB
1256, Homestead
Property Tax
Credit
•SB 434/HB 898, Incentives for
Agriculture Act of 2008
• SB 486/HB 1365, State Lottery – Lottery
for Benefit of Thoroughbred and
Standardbred Breeders
•SB 495, Homestead Property Credit– Farm or Agricultural Use
Land
• SB 784, Horse Racing Purse Dedication
Account – Allocation of Funds
• SB 915, Task Force on Future
Conservation of Maryland’s Open
Space and Farmland
• SB 964, Agriculture – Nutrient
Management Plans – Filing and
Release
• SB 970, Agricultural Land Preservation
Easements – Construction of
Houses
• HB 134, Vehicle Laws – Transporting
Pets in Trucks or Trailers
• HB 333/SB 509, Maryland Estate Tax - Exclusion
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Eventing IS Safer
by Steuart Pittman, Jr.
Dodon
Farm • Davidsonville,
MD
Results from the March running of the
Red Hills Horse Trials in Tallahassee,
Florida, have (again) sparked the safety
debates. Half truths and uninformed commentary
are flaring across the internet right
now at a pace that makes 570 meters per
minute feel like a trot. I feel compelled to
lay out what I consider to be relevant facts
in the hope that Marylanders will keep
these debates “balanced and on the aids.”
Red Hills is a high-profile event run on
terrain that is wooded and hilly. The crosscountry
courses twist, turn and undulate. It
is very unlike our Fair Hill, Rolex in Kentucky,
or most of the events leading up to
it in Florida and South Carolina. Having
been there myself and discussed the course
with many of my peers, I have found that
riders don’t like cross-country at Red Hills
much, even though it is beautifully built
and draws thousands of local spectators.
This year’s courses at Red Hills were not
much different than in years past, but the
results got people talking. Olympian Darren
Chiacchia suffered a terrible fall that
left him for weeks in intensive care and
from which he is still recovering. Darren’s
fall took place early on the Preliminary
cross-country course when his horse
hesitated at a table and then jumped. The
horse rotated when he fell and landed on
Darren. Later in the day, on the Advanced
courses, two horses died of pulmonary
hemorrhages. The veterinarians who did
autopsies said that their deaths were not
caused by the jumps [at which they fell],
but that they fell because of their pulmonary
failures.
One would be hard pressed to blame
these accidents on the cross-country courses
at Red Hills, but the score sheets from
the weekend left many riders frustrated.
Normally two-thirds to three-quarters
of the field at an Advanced competition
will get around the cross-country course
without jump penalties. In the Advanced divisions combined at Red
Hills there were
23 clean rounds out of 55, or 42%. Nobody
made the optimum time.
Eventing has always responded to its accidents
with research, input from members
and committees of riders, course designers,
organizers, officials. The United States
Eventing Association (USEA) has created a
course advisors’ program, an instructor certification
program and oversight of courses
at every recognized event. Every year there
are changes in the rules and new initiatives
that come out of concern for the welfare of
riders and horses. Few people who compete
would deny that eventing today is a more
humane and a safer sport than it was 10 and
20 years ago.
The USEA’s new president, Kevin
Baumgardner, wrote on the USEA web
site that a strategic planning committee is
taking “a hard look at the sport,” and “my
concern that the sport has gotten off track
is shared by many of our members,” and
that it is “now or never” to do something
about it. Baumgardner is not very specific
about why he thinks that our sport is going
down the toilet, but he does argue that
cross-country is supposed to be exhilarating
and that it has gotten too technical. “The
joy and thrill of galloping rhythmically over
jumps across country has been replaced
with questions of extreme technicality and
a proliferation of combinations taken at
show-jump speed,” he says. I think he’s going
way too far. He sounds to me more like
a gadfly than a leader.
Upper Level Courses Are More
Jump-able Than They Look
The internet response to Baumgardner
has been overwhelming, and [his] lack of
specificity has attracted everyone who ever
had a gripe about eventing. Baumgarnder’s
primary point seems to be that the trend
toward technical combinations is a bad
thing and that it makes the sport inaccessible
to most potential participants. But most
eventers ride at Training level and below,
where technical questions that require balance
and adjustability don’t really exist. The
lower levels offer exactly the straightforward
courses that he says have disappeared.
The outcry, I believe, reflects the fact that -
to the average eventer - upper level courses
look like they are not jumpable. I remember
feeling that way until I had a horse who
had worked his way up the levels.
Upper-level courses have changed
through the years. They [have] become
more technical to test the ever-improving
skills and training of the competitors. They
[have] also become more technical as a way
to prevent falls. Narrows encourage safe
run outs, as opposed to the horses trying
to jump their way out of trouble; and the
need for adjustability of balance and pace
prevents the wild and crazy partnerships of
the past from ever qualifying to move up
the levels. Note that of the 11 most recent
cross-country rider deaths worldwide, nine
were at single galloping fences as opposed
to those we consider “technical.”
The more challenging a course is meant
to be, the greater chance that a designer
inadvertently crosses the line into the
dreaded territory of “trappy.” Maybe that
happened at Red Hills, but you can bet that
the course designer, Captain Mark Phillips,
will make the changes to get back on track,
or be replaced by another course designer.
I would also bet, however, that the changes
to make Red Hills flow better won’t make
the course look much different to the eye
of most horsemen. It will still look unrideable
to most of us, because it will still be an
Advanced course.
Slowing Optimum Time is Not The
Answer
The issue of speed is also a hot topic.
Historically, our sport has had a speed for
each level which [establishes] an optimum
time for courses. Some terrain and some
courses make it nearly impossible to make
that time, so everyone gets penalties. Elsewhere,
and in good conditions, the time is
quite attainable. The more combinations
that require show jumping speed, the
quicker you have to be on the rest of the
course to make time.
I believe that at the upper levels, it is
appropriate that only the top handful of
horses make the time and [therefore] they
should be rewarded. If you watch videos of
the rides that come inside the time at Rolex
or Badminton (or any other upper level
event), you will notice that they are almost
always the smoothest and safest looking
rounds. I remember watching Kim Severson
and Winsome Adante running around
Rolex something like 15 seconds inside
the time. It looked like a polished hunter
round. It is the clock that rewards those
great cross-country runs.
Any upper level competitor will tell you
that it is not the kicking and pulling that
gets you inside the time, it’s the fluid shifts
in balance and the accuracy. Eventing is the
only sport that tests the harmony between
horse and rider at the gallop. If we slow
the optimum times down, those smooth,
fast rounds will not be rewarded. People
who have to kick and pull and jerk their
horses around the course could still make
the slower times, so dressage judges could
end up with even greater influence on the
final standings.
The System Is Working
Participation rates in eventing are up at
every level. I went to the Cross-Country
Jumping Derby hosted in March by the
organizers of the Marlborough Horse Trials.
The place was overrun with newcomers
to our sport. They are choosing eventing as
their discipline of choice. They are learning
dressage. They are learning to gallop. They
are learning to adjust their horse’s balance
a little. They are learning safe cross-country
position. They are having a blast with their
horses, and as they improve their riding,
their horses are having fun, too.
In our part of southern Maryland, the
sport is growing and the riding is improving
because of a group of trainers who have
had to confront the difficult challenges of
the sport at the upper levels. These trainers
had to learn to balance a horse for a
technical combination and to keep a horse
straight for a skinny. They figured out, with
the help of some top trainers, how to make
an event horse from a failed race horse and
sell it for good money. The growth and
progress and quality of the sport has made
it possible for some of the most talented of
the young riders to make a living this way,
by training and selling horses and teaching
people new to the sport. That’s good for
everyone.
Let’s keep talking about how to improve
our sport, but let’s not allow our grief over
tragedy to poison our attitudes about an endeavor
that brings out the best in so many
wonderful people and horses. I, for one,
will also tip my hat to the brilliant course
designers, builders, organizers and volunteers
who have worked so hard in recent
years to make cross-country courses the
magnificent tests of training that they are
today. If we remember where we’ve come
from, those courses will be even better
tomorrow.
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