The battle over the federal budget has been playing out slowly in Congress for weeks, but it came galloping toward Maryland's thoroughbred farms recently in the form of a proposed tax increase.
After threatening to trim the nation's ballooning budget deficits in part by ending tax breaks on corporate jets, high-priced yachts and hedge funds, Senate Democrats also proposed eliminating a $126 million tax carve-out for the nation's horse racing industry.
The idea has prompted an outcry from Maryland's already struggling horse breeders.
"It's a fallacy that only millionaires and billionaires own racehorses," Cynthia McGinnes, a breeder and owner of the Thornmar Farm in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore, said of the justification offered for eliminating the break. "I think it would finish the breeding industry."
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