We are writing to you to let you know that Governor Maura Healey has just submitted a budget that would effectively wipe out all future funding for the NEHBPA, that includes our Health and Welfare Benefits including your Old Age Assistance, our Breeders Program and any funding for future purses that would enable our thoroughbred owners and trainers to race in Massachusetts as we continue negotiations to build a new racetrack.
We are actively engaged in responding to this threat and believe that this is an opportunity to not only eliminate the Governor’s language but also to educate the Governor and the Legislature about how essential our industry is to the livelihoods of our rural communities.
Governor Healey’s budget is heavily focused on transportation and housing, both commendable goals, but eliminating funding for a rural-based industry only hurts the rural communities where farming, breeding of horses and a rural-based economy has no other option. The real sinkhole in the state’s budget is the MBTA – not the Thoroughbred or Standardbred racing sports. What we support is the preservation of our farmlands, our breeding and hay farms, a lifestyle that may be little understood in Boston.
We need you to get engaged and fight for our sport and our heritage. The 2011 sports gaming law that was intended to preserve our sport and your life’s work is now on the chopping block. Most of our members do not take the T to work. They work in their backyards and barns to preserve a farming lifestyle that also preserves hundreds of small businesses that rely on that lifestyle to put food on the table to thousands of families in Massachusetts.
Roll up your sleeves!
NEHBPA