A Message from Virginia Horse Council President Pat Mullins
Submitted by: Pat Mullins
Phone: 540-872-2523
Email Address: mullins2(at)ns.gemlink.com
Date Added: 10/12/2004
The Mission of the Virginia Horse Council is to serve as the umbrella organization of the Virginia Equine community and to serve as the lobbyist on issues affecting horsemen, horsewomen and horses in the Commonwealth. This is a mission that your Virginia Horse Council Board takes seriously and is both committed to following and is dedicated to fulfilling.
These are both critical and exciting times for our Virginia Equine Community. Many issues are on the table and your Horse Council is involved in all of them on your behalf.
In November, voters in six communities will be asked to approve referendums to establish four additional satellite-wagering facilities in the Commonwealth. Las year, during the legislative debate on this issue, the Horse Council spoke and lobbied on behalf of the Thoroughbred and Harness industry, not only to our work force and our various equine suppliers, but also to equine owners not involved in racing
There is a definite economic trickle down effect from the racing industry to all segments of our equine community. We urge you to support this referendum if you are in a community where it will be on the ballot.
The decisions to be made in the 2005 session of the Virginia General Assembly regarding funding of the Virginia Horse Center’s debt service will have tremendous ramifications for our Virginia Equine Community. The Virginia Horse Council will be closely following this debate. The continued funding of the Horse Center’s debt service, in accordance with assurances given by the General Assembly before the Horse Center was built, was a priority item on the Horse Council’s 2004 Legislative agenda and the we lobbied extensively for this funding. This funding must be restored, not for just the 2005 budget year, but until the bonds are retired, or we risk losing the benefit of having perhaps the best Equine facility in the United States continuing to be open to all Virginians and all segments of our equine community. Some members of the Virginia Assembly feel that the Horse Center is nothing but a play toy of the wealthy and should be privatized, but the entire operation of the Horse Center and its availability to all horsemen could be drastically altered under private ownership.
Third, the Virginia Horse Council, The Virginia Thoroughbred Association and other equine associations and breed organizations will be asking the General Assembly for permission to hold a referendum during 2005 to ask equine owners in Virginia for their approval in instituting a feed check off program here in the Commonwealth. The program would add pennies to the cost of each bag of feed sold here in the Commonwealth and would be similar to feed check off programs in our neighboring states of North Carolina and Maryland. This program could cost the average Virginia Horse owner roughly $3 per year per horse, but would return an estimated $150,000-$200,000 to the Virginia Horse Industry Board, which the VHIB would then return to our equine community in the way of grants for education, research and promotion of our horse industry, the fifth largest in the United States. For further information on the feed check off program contact the Virginia Horse Council.
These are just three of the many issues your Horse Council will be following and addressing during the days and months ahead. Your financial support is what enables us to fund the Council and enables us to lobby on behalf of the thousands of horse owners here in the Commonwealth and we than you for that support. And please contact us if we can assist you with an equine related problem or if you would like to become more involved in the activities of your Virginia Horse Council.
Patrick Mullins can be reached at 540-872-2523 or mullins2@ns.gemlink.com.
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