THE MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL
where the manure came from. Te bill also creates some new require- ments for Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Tere are very few such CAFOs involving equines in Maryland (the race tracks and the Prince George’s Equestrian Center being the notable exceptions).
Harford County Crop Damage Permits Bill HB 401/SB 923 will put into law the ability for farmers in Har-
ford County with Crop Damage Permits to use the most efficient and effective tool for harvesting deer who are damaging crops: rifles (with the exception of when the deer hunting season is restricted to shotguns). MHC generally supports bills which strengthen the effectiveness of Crop Damage Permits.
Exempting Ag-Buildings from Certain High Occupancy Codes
MHC supports efforts that enable farm owners (including horse farm
owners) to be able to provide activities for the general public without onerous or unrealistic permitting requirements on existing ag-related buildings. We are pleased that the Governor has signed into law HB 639 which adds Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Kent, Prince George’s, and St. Mary’s County to the list of counties (Carroll County, Cecil County, Garrett County, and Howard County) that exempt existing ag structures from requirements to retrofit with high occupancy public re- quirements, such as bathrooms and sprinklers.
Land & Open Space
From easements on private lands to the acquisition by the state of lands intended for public use, MHC monitors these bills for how they will af- fect landowners and how they will provide opportunities for riders. Te following bills passed in this session: • HB 20/SB 344 State Ag Land Transfer Tax – Non Ag Use Exemp- tions: Prior to this bill, developers could avoid paying agricultural land transfer tax on land that was currently being used for an ag activity (such as hay growing), despite the land having been previously assessed at a higher tax use (such as commercial or residential); with the amended version of this bill, developers will now have to pay a minimum of 35% of the ag assessment from year 4 and beyond. • SB 25 Recording Conservation Easements, Covenants, Restrictions, and Conditions: Tere are times when title companies or others working on behalf of land purchasers are legitimately unable to find whether or not a property is encumbered by an ag or conservation easement, usually because the easements are several decades old and may or may not have been properly filed initially. When this bill becomes law, entities which hold easements, such as Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foun- dation, the Maryland Historical Trust, the Maryland Environmental Trust, and DNR will have access to land records, and will be compelled by law to properly record notice of easements, covenants, restrictions, and conditions in the land records of the county in which the property interest is located.
Racing Related Prior to bill HB 80/SB 132 (Horse Racing at Fair Hill), the law re-
quired that any profits made by the Cecil County Breeders’ Fair, Inc., be donated to Union Hospital of Cecil County. Tis law will repeal that requirement.
Equine-Based Therapeutic Programs for Vets Te amended SB 105 MD (Veterans Services Terapy Horses) will
now contain an expanded definition of “nonprofit training entity” (as applied to the Maryland Veterans Service Animal Program) to include trained therapy horses for interaction with veterans. Previously the law applied only to therapy dogs.
8 | THE EQUIERY | MAY 2019
Fair Use of Shared Resources As it has for the last 25 years, MHC actively works to ensure that
horseback riders (and others) are not unfairly excluded from enjoying the outdoors due to expanding dates for deer hunting with firearms. MHC has enjoyed moderate success over the years at stemming the tide and keeping curbs on the expansion, but the challenges become greater every year. Expansion proponents find ways around MHC’s well-laid and well-respected objections. MHC seeks like-minded user groups as allies on these issues. Between the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions, MHC crafted a com-
promise statewide position (hunting must end at 10:30 a.m. on any ad- ditional Sundays of firearm hunting) that we hoped would put the is- sue to bed. In 2016, with the support of Farm Bureau and numerous trail groups such as Trail Riders of Today (TROT), MHC attempted to spearhead state-wide compromise legislation, which did not pass. Nev- ertheless, the 2016 effort has yielded an unexpected benefit: when faced with yet another county-specific “local courtesy” bill (such bills are called “local courtesy” bills because legislators from other counties tend to sup- port them, expecting the same “courtesy” when their own county-specific bills come to a vote) to expand the hunting of deer to Sundays (or to more Sundays, for counties that already have some Sunday hunting) and a roomful of stalwart equestrians appear in opposition, legislators seem to have kept the 10:30 compromise in their toolkit, readily proffering it as the compromise for whatever controversial firearm legislation is on the table at the moment. Below are only those bills which passed this session.
• HB 199 added one Sunday for deer hunting in Wicomico, but before the bill was passed, it was amended limiting hunting from an hour prior to sunrise until 10:30 a.m. • Signed by the Governor before this issue went to press, HB 242 autho- rizes DNR to allow a person in Cecil County to hunt any game bird or mammal, on Sundays on public and private land. • Dorchester expands Sunday Hunting of Deer with bow, muzzleloader and firearms on private property: HB 618/SB 889, HB 619/SB 890 and HB 620/SB 888. • Originally, SB 390 would have opened up all Sundays on all public and private land throughout the deer hunting season. Te bill was amended and whittled down to just St. Mary’s County, but expanded to apply to all species of game bird or mammal on public and private land.
Conclusion Many thanks to Jane Seigler for her leadership of the MHC Legisla-
tive Committee, to Kim Egan Rutter for identifying and summarizing the status of bills MHC monitored, and to all the committee members for their time, valuable knowledge and input, and individual ability to at- tend hearings and to be active in the legislative process: 2019 Legislative Committee Chair - Jane Seigler, Committee Members: Kim Egan Rut- ter, Christy Clagett, Royce Herman, Crystal Pickett, Jennifer Sponseller- Webster, Neil Agate, Joe Michael, Jacquie Cowan, Joanne Stone, and Gale Monahan. You can get full information about bills, including their full texts, any amendments, and which legislators voted for/against, by going to mga-
leg.maryland.gov and typing in the bill number in the “Find legislation by number” box at the top of the home page.
Next Quarterly MHC Meeting will be on May 30th at 6pm in the Vista Room of the Maryland State Fair! Get your tickets here:
http://buytickets.at/mda/258777
800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
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