A Republican leader in the House of Representatives took his turn this week to be critical of the way the Rendell Administration is talking about the need to shore up the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.  It was followed late Friday with a response from House Democrats.

In a memo to House members, Majority Leader Sam Smith (R-Jefferson) said, “There appears to be much confusion regarding the history and the fate of the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund (HSCA). For instance, even (over the fundamental point that) the approval of a Growing Greener Bond Issue won't lead to more funding for HSCA.”

Smith’s memo follows similar letters written by Senators Mary Jo White and Chip Brightbill raising concerns in December (PaED 12/20/04) in response to statements made by DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty (PEDigest 12/13/04).

The Smith memo said in part--

“Last year, we proposed including $10 million in the state budget for the HSCA Fund. This appropriation was removed at the insistence of the governor's budget secretary.

“The administration has reported numerous and wildly varying "ending balances" for the fund over the past several months. However, DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty has recently stated that the expected ending balance of the fund is now a deficit of $14 million.

“It appears that DEP's regional directors are calling House and Senate offices to let legislators know which Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund (HSCA) sites will be affected by the apparent lack of money available in the fund. The administration is further raising fear in communities by saying that toxic sites won't be cleaned up, as reported by the Bucks County Courier Times last week: ‘All active hazardous waste cleanup projects across the state would be put on hold, or scheduled to end at some point next year, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.’

“(As an aside, not surprisingly they seem to be trying to place blame for the situation on the legislature, specifically Republicans.)

“The governor wants an unfunded HSCA for leverage in his attempt to force a vote for his additional fee of $5 on municipal solid waste, $4 per ton on residual waste and a 15 cent fee on emissions listed on the natural Toxic Release Inventory. The administration wants this money, along with an $800 million bond to fund the Growing Greener program.

“You know as well as I do that these collections will invariably be passed on to already overburdened taxpayers and consumers.

“The majority of hazardous industrial site cleanups are completed using private sector dollars. Under Act 2 (Brownfields), developers use large amounts of private money to clean up these sites to turn them back into productive use. DEP has consistently muddied these waters. HSCA deals with sites that are abandoned, or the owners are bankrupt and cannot pay, or become emergencies for one reason or another. Don't be confused about the definition of what qualifies to be covered under HSCA.

“In truth, even if the Growing Greener ballot question had been presented and approved last November, nothing would be done to enhance the HSCA Fund. The governor's proposal for spending the huge loan does NOT include funding for HSCA.

“The HSCA funding would come from revenue generated from Governor Rendell's desired tax increases on homeowners and businesses; therefore, funding for HSCA, from whatever source, could easily be considered separately from the bond issue. They are linked only in the mind(s) of this administration, not by any legal considerations. HSCA was never a part of Growing Greener. Watch out for the "it's not broke so let's fix it" philosophy.

“By the administration's own admission as the debt service on the bond increases, the transfer of monies to the HSCA fund will diminish and eventually disappear. So even their own "solution" is not a long-term solution.

“The governor has the ability to promptly transfer funds so that emergency relief for communities facing contaminated sites can begin.  Anticipating the possibility of HSCA funds being depleted, Act 89 of 2002 gives the governor authority to transfer approximately $34 million to the HSCA Fund if the expected ending balance falls below $5 million.”

In their memo, House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene) and Minority Whip Mike Veon (D-Beaver) pointed to testimony presented by DEP Secretary McGinty in June to the Green Ribbon Commission  saying the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund was facing "financial ruin" and a deficit.  "The continually updated estimates of the depth of the deficit are provided by the Comptroller’s Office, not DEP." 

[Note: In fact all these changing numbers of the Fund surplus or deficit were given out at one time or another.  It has been difficult to pin down exactly what the deficit is for members of the General Assembly as all sides point out.]

On the objection to calling members of the General Assembly about sites affected in their district, DeWeese and Veon said, "these sites are not new. Every member of the legislature was provided a briefing book with earlier versions of the sites as part of the information the administration provided -- at the General Assembly’s request -- to help inform the legislature’s proposed Green Ribbon Commission about the fund, created by the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act. Individual legislators have expressed their appreciation to DEP for the extensive efforts to keep them fully apprised and not in the dark about these important developments in their districts."

On the issue of the Governor creating leverage, the Democratic Leaders said, " In fact, the Governor’s Growing Greener II initiative is the only proposal that has been put on the table to address the HSCA crisis. Specifically, the governor’s initiative provides $20 million to HSCA from a fee on toxic releases and $45 million on average from municipal and residual waste fees. Though proposed a year ago, Growing Greener II remains the only funding source. No competing proposal has been offered."

They also pointed out that no brownfields project can move forward in the state without staff in place to handle the paperwork, some of which is paid for by the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

DeWeese and Veon also said they thought the "trigger" that would allow the emergency transfer of funds to the Hazardous Sites Fund is "broken" as DEP has said in past testimony in the General Assembly.

On the point of transferring funds for Hazardous Sites Cleanup raised by the House Republicans and Democrats, Sen.Vincent Fumo, the Democratic Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also weighed in on that issue saying he supported a transfer, along with Senate Republicans, to help deal with the crisis, PaED 12/27/04).  In addition, at last year's budget hearing, DEP was asked to provide language to fix the trigger for transfering money, but as of yet had not provided language.

In a separate report this week, the Rendell Administration announced state revenue collections are running $252.3 million ahead of projections.

Ironically, all parties want to fix the problem of the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund running out of money, they just have to figure out how-- one-year  transfer, temporary fees on toxic emissions, higher fees on hazardous waste, permanent General Fund support or some combination.  Meanwhile DEP employees and other projects hang in the balance with the choices made by the Administration and General Assembly.

The bottomline is expect more back and forth on this issue. 

1/7/2005