Equine bill amended in Senate Ways & Means
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OLYMPIA–A bill which hopes to reinvigorate the equine industry in Washington was given a hearing by the Senate Ways and Means Committee last week, passed with an amendment which removed most of the bill sponsor’s intended language on Monday, and Tuesday of this week, was pulled from the Senate Rules Committee, making it eligible for debate on the Senate floor.
Proponents of the proposed legislation testified remotely during the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, February 24. Testifying were Doug Moore, Executive Director of the Washington Horse Racing Commission (WHRC), Ron Crockett, a state-wide proponent of horse racing, Phil Ziegler, president of Emerald Downs, and Dayton Days vice-president, Loyal Baker, all of whom spoke in favor of House Bill 1928, which was sent to the Senate for consideration after passing the House of Representatives 90-8. In addition to those testifying, dozens submitted written testimony or simply indicated support through electronic means. No opposition was noted.
In Executive Session on Monday, Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Sen. Christine Rolfes (D-23-Bainbridge Island) introduced a striking amendment that removed all provisions of financial support for the WHRC, the breeder’s organization, and the substantial funds to support purses for horses running at Emerald Downs. Instead of dedicating a portion of sales taxes on equine products as the funding source, Sen. Rolfes’s language calls for funding equine activities by legislative appropriation and directive. Expenditures of funds would go to nonprofit race meets, grants for equine activities, and “equine health and safety programs and research and facility improvements and maintenance.”
“An amendment has been proposed that removes essentially all support for the state’s hobbled equine industry,” Baker said a document submitted to Ways and Means Committee members after Rolfes’s amendment was publicized, “but keeps support for nonprofit race meets, grants for equine industry, and equine health and safety programs and research and facility improvements and maintenance. This amendment would be like having the farm club Tacoma Rainiers but without the next step up to the majors, the Mariners.
“If passed as amended, the broad, general language could mean the legislature’s will to support this industry could change like the weather,” Baker wrote. “The nonprofit organizations like Dayton Days will be on tenterhooks every year, awaiting word about if money will be available and its amount. No business or organization can operate in such a manner, going to and fro on the whims of the legislature.”
Moore, WHRC Executive Director, indicated to the Dayton Chronicle that HB 1928 being passed from the Ways and Means Committee with such an amendment isn’t the best scenario, but at least the bill is still “alive.”
Senators on Tuesday pulled the bill from the Rules Committee, which means it may be debated and amended in the Senate, if it is placed on the calendar.
