Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), a key player in the budget process as the Majority Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, raised several fundamental issues about the way the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources are funded in their budget hearings this week.

On December 9, Sen. Browne urged DCNR to “monetize” its “valuable assets” with the goal of trying to make DCNR’s budget self-sufficient.

At the March 11 DEP budget hearing, Sen. Browne questioned whether the original purpose of the dedicated environmental funds administered by DEP “still exists” saying that “merging” the revenue sources and their expenditures would make things much easier.

Here are Sen. Browne’s comments which were made in the last 13 minutes or so of each hearing..

Monetize DCNR Assets

"Over the last several years, we've used an alternative fund [DCNR's Oil and Gas Lease Fund], a relevant fund but an alternative fund, to fund the very important things you do. The revenue capacity of that fund is shrinking.”

 "It's not like the General Fund which still grows, it doesn't grow enough, but grows. And it's required the Budget Secretary, along with you, to find other means to fund that….”

"I've always believed that your department has opportunities that other departments don't have.

“The assets that you manage have tremendous value. They're not services. We're not doing the same things that other departments do, and that is operating services. We're managing valuable assets."

"And as a strategic plan for you, as part of that overall challenge we have, to continue to look for ways, and your current fiscal situation dictates this is necessary, I think, other than looking just to the general fund."

"To continue to look [at] how to make your department, leveraging the assets that you have [to be] self-sufficient, not considering other sources, the other sources that continue to be strained and are necessary for us to provide for a balanced picture going forward."

"And you have the ability to do that. How much you can charge for those assets?  How you can monetize those assets to make them something that brings in revenue?

“But that opportunity exists in your department more than any other department does."

"I encourage you to do that because it is part of what we all have to do going forward, looking at the demographic trends we have, in a period of time we've never been more at risk [financially] now than we ever have been."

"And one of the challenges I have with the governor's proposal on revenue is our economy has been stressed, stressed for public health reasons, more so than it ever has in our, anyone's adult life here.

"And how will it react to us asking them for additional dollars at this point in time?

“So the decisions we make right now in relation to that could have enormous effects on the long term sustainability of our budgets and our ability to turn around that demographic picture that we have.

"So, going forward in your thought process, and you have coveted your position  as someone who manages some of Pennsylvania's most valuable assets, to look at yourself in the bigger picture of Pennsylvania's overall financial plan and not just [as] a small piece of the pie.

"And we can look at it that way, in isolation.

“But you are a part of the overall challenge that we have. And you have an opportunity to make a huge difference in that."

Background

At the same hearing, Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Committee, suggested DCNR lease more state forest land for natural gas drilling, even though 65 percent of the existing gas leases go unused and because of the natural gas slump, drillers have slowed the drilling on their leases on private land.  Read more here.

House Republicans have also suggested state park entrance fees [Read more here] and promoted the idea of putting commercial, private development in state parks, in part to make money [Read more here].

The public has consistently opposed entrance and parking fees at state parks, many of which are designed with multiple entrances-- one has 32-- because parks are sometimes one of the only benefits they regularly enjoy from state government, particularly during the pandemic.  Read more here.

In fact, 86 percent state park visitors this past year said parks, trails and outdoor recreation were essential to their physical and mental wellbeing during the pandemic.  Read more here.

Studies have shown for every $1 invested in State Parks, $12.41 is returned to the state’s economy, the award-winning system supports 12,630 jobs and generates $1.15 billion in local economic activity.  Read more here.

In 2017, the PA Supreme Court declared the transfers of revenue derived from leasing state forest land for natural gas drilling to the General Fund was unconstitutional because the General Assembly and the governor failed in their responsibilities as public trustees for those resources under the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment to the constitution.  Read more here

Unfortunately, those unconstitutional transfers continue to this day and so do the court battles to stop them.

DEP - Dedicated Funds Due They Serve A Purpose?

“Lastly, as we talk about other areas of the past. We continue to be in the position of reviewing and it leads to concern about the sustainability of the many other [dedicated] funds that you utilize for the services that you provide.

"All the different funds that serve specific purposes, but they were used for exclusively for those purposes years ago, but now are a part of the overall [budget] for your department.

"[We] want to continue to engage with you to make sure that we have a clear picture as to the sustainability of those funds going forward.

"Some of the members have asked specifically about some of the funds, like Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund. That Fund was put in financial question because we had a sustainable source that we decided to phase out.

"We need to continue engaging how we determine the sustainability of these individual funds, and there is continued conversations about, because the funds, some of them, have been used to support the general obligations, general mission of the Department of Environmental Protection, so than they have in the past, whether the original purpose of these funds still exists.

"At least from a transparency and accounting perspective, taking these funds, their revenue source and their expenditures, and merging them together without having to do separate evaluations and separate analysis, and try to communicate to people what the total amount of money we're spending for your mission is, just at that, just in that perspective we'd make things a lot easier.

"Because we're doing a lot more, because of our fiscal challenges, we're doing a  lot more sharing of resources amongst funds. It makes the accounting related to budgeting a lot more difficult, and a lot less transparent.

"I would like to have the ability to work with you to consider options for sustainability and financial reporting that are in the best interest of all of us in doing our jobs.”

Background

The Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener), Recycling, Air Quality, Storage Tank, Clean Water, Well Plugging, Safe Drinking Water, Mine Reclamation, Radiation Protection, and other dedicate funds not only support community-based environmental restoration projects, but also in many cases DEP operations.

The dedicated funds were put in place by individual laws that established programs because businesses and local governments that paid fees to DEP wanted to be sure they were spent on supporting the programs that served them, and did not go into the “black hole” of the General Fund.

Because the General Assembly and governors have cut DEP’s General Fund support by 40 percent over the last 14 years and its staff as a result by nearly 30 percent, DEP has had to increase those permit fees just to support its programs.

In fact, for many programs DEP administers with the federal government, like Safe Drinking Water, Air Quality, Mining, Water Quality and others, DEP was told their staffing levels and financial resources did not meet even minimum federal requirements because of these cuts.

In the FY 2020-21 state budget, $201,977,000 was taken from dedicated environmental and energy funds and used to balance the state budget. Read more here.

The consequence of just one of those diversion-- $50 million from the Recycling Fund-- meant DEP had to postpone this year’s solicitation of grant applications from local governments to support their recycling programs.  Read more here.

Over the last 14 years, the General Assembly has diverted $3.468 billion in environmental funding to other programs.  Read more here.

A poll released in September shows 90 percent of Pennsylvania voters support more funding for critical environmental and conservation programs and are willing to pay for it.  Read more here.

Based on Sen. Browne’s comments, efforts will be made again to take away funding to support community-based environmental restoration, recreation and other programs and either “merge” them or dump them into the “black hole.”

Click Here for testimony and videos of completed Senate hearings.

Click Here to watch completed House budget hearings.

Senate, House $200 Million+ Surplus

There was no discussion by Senate and House members on what they plan to do with the over $200 million surplus they have in their own operating budgets as they talked during budget hearings about the growing state deficit, state agency overspending, monetizing assets and cutting appropriations and while many Pennsylvanians are struggling to pay their bills.  Read more here.

Related Articles - 2021 Budget Hearings:

-- AP: Senate, House Operating Costs Soared In 2019-20; Surplus Grew To Over $200 Million

-- House Budget Hearing Fails To Address A Single Critical Budget Issue Faced By DEP Or DCNR

-- DEP Budget Testimony: DEP Works Through The Pandemic, Public Demands Action To Address Climate Change

-- Sen. Yaw: DCNR Should Raise Money By Leasing More State Forest Land For Natural Gas Drilling; Fails To Deal With $1 Billion DCNR Infrastructure Needs

-- DCNR Budget Testimony: Outdoor Recreation Helped Millions Of Pennsylvanians Cope With COVID Pandemic

Related Articles - Budget DEP-DCNR:

-- Work The Problem, Cancel The Show: Environmental Funding Is About People, Not Numbers

-- 90 percent Of Voters Want MORE Funding For Critical Environmental, Conservation Programs & Local Projects-- Whose Budget Proposal Does That?

-- 90 percent Of PA Voters Want Senate, House To Provide More Funding For Critical Environmental, Conservation Programs; That Didn’t Happen In 2020

-- $201,977,000 Diverted From Environment, Energy Funds To Balance FY 2020-21 State Budget

-- Learn More About $1 Billion State Parks, Forests Maintenance, Infrastructure Backlog At New Website; Then Take Action

-- Dramatic Increase In Visitors Caused Strains On Already Understaffed, Underfunded State Parks, Forests And Facilities At DCNR

-- New Poll: 86 percent Say Parks, Trails, Outdoors Are Essential To Their Physical, Mental Health During Pandemic; State Parks Saw 26.6 percent Increase In Visitors

-- PA Environmental Council Updated Survey Shows Trail Use Increased 17 percent In 2020, Some Trails By Over 150 percent

[Posted: March 12, 2021]

3/15/2021