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Remember the Wild Resource Conservation Fund at Tax Time

By Sara Nicholas, Wild Resource Conservation Program

With the ringing in of the New Year, the Wild Resource Conservation Fund turns a ripe old 25, making it one of the longest-running and longest-surviving state non-game wildlife programs in the country.

The Fund, now housed within DCNR as the Wild Resource Conservation Program, has survived economic downturns, changes of administration and legislative turnovers, and competition from an ever-crowded field of charitable and service programs vying for public donations and attention.

Like the northern flying squirrel that will be our featured critter this year, the Fund climbs, glides, and dips, but manages to hang on, often with flair.

When it was first created in 1982 by an act of the state legislature, the Wild Resource Conservation Fund was the first tax check-off “special fund.” It was such a good idea that others followed suit, and now there are currently seven special tax-check-offs on the state income tax return form.

This year also marks the sunset for the tax check-off for three of these special funds, including WRCF, so legislative efforts are underway to ensure that the WRCF check-off and others are reauthorized. Stay tuned!

A few years after the tax check-off idea, when revenues were not keeping pace with the demands of a vibrant and sought-after grant program to support research and conservation of Pennsylvania’s non-game resources, the Wild Resource Conservation Program had another good idea: to issue a special revenue-generating license plate.

First came the saw-whet owl, which brought a financial boom to the Fund with a mid-1990s peak of more than $1 million in annual revenue. Then came the otter, which had its own peak and then decline.

Like the tax check-off, it was such a good idea that there are now more than 300 special license-plate funds.

Today, donations to the Fund are coming from three primary sources; the tax check-off, the license plate sales, and sales of videos, books, and other educational materials developed by the Fund.

The annual grants program is supported separately through DCNR’s contribution of Growing Greener I fund monies.

The income-tax check-off is still by far the largest and most important source of funding to carry the cost of administering the Fund, which is not supported by state general fund monies, and for creating and publishing new outreach and educational programs and materials on non-game wildlife and native plants in Pennsylvania.

Data on the WRCF tax check-off show that in the early days of the Fund—the mid to late 1980s—one million Pennsylvanians received refunds and 7 percent of them donated an average of $2.37 to the Fund.

By 1997, due in part to the competition from other special tax check-off funds, only 3.1 percent of the one million Pennsylvanians receiving refunds steered part of their refunds to the WRCF, although at a higher average donation of $5.30 per individual.

Today those figures are slightly lower, with a total annual revenue stream to the Fund holding steady at about $123,000 a year. Unfortunately, costs to administer the Fund and to develop outreach and educational materials run more than $200,000 a year.

The Fund needs another good idea.

Some of the ideas being debated this year—and in years prior—include broadening the number of Pennsylvania taxpayers who are eligible to contribute to the tax-check-off to those who owe taxes—almost 70 percent of filers—and not just those who are due a refund.

A study done several years ago for the DCNR policy office suggests this would instantly double the revenue stream from the tax check-off to the Fund, a policy that has worked well in 8 other states.

Other ideas include a non-game wildlife stamp; annual wildlife art prints; a dedicated revenue stream related to the purchase of watchable wildlife equipment or related recreational trips; a line-item for the Fund in the next state budget; a voluntary contribution opportunity each time wildlife license-plate holders renew their licenses, and many more.

Any Pennsylvanian or out-of-state wildlife supporter still has the opportunity to contribute to the Fund any time by sending in a donation.

Note: Sen. Ray Musto (D-Luzerne) introduced Senate Bill 98 this week that would remove the December 2007 sunset date on the Wild Resource Conservation Fund tax checkoff program and extend it to 2012.

Link: Wild Resource Conservation Fund

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The Senate and House both break for budget hearings until March 12.

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