Budget hearings in the Senate and House this week touched on several environmental issues, but the main events will come up next week when the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources appear before the Appropriations Committees.

Here are several items that came up during hearings this week--

REAP Tax Credit: Department of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff, Sen. Brubaker (R-Lancaster), Chair of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, Sen. Gib Armstrong (R-Lancaster), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Waugh (R-York) and other members declared the first year of the Resource Enhancement and Protection Act (REAP) farm conservation tax credit program a success. The $10 million allocation for REAP was exhausted within the first ten days the application period.

Conservation District Funding: Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee uniformly expressed concern about cuts to county conservation district funding in Gov. Rendell’s proposed budget at a time when districts were being called on to do more to help implement the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy and to deal with the on-farm consequences of the state’s biofuels initiative.

Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said the Governor is willing to re-evaluate conservation district funding levels pending year-end revenue surpluses.

Farmland Preservation: Sen. O’Pake (D-Berks), Minority Chair of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, expressed concern about the decrease in funding for farmland preservation that will reduce the number of farms preserved by 10,000 acres. Secretary Wolff said the prior year included funding from the Growing Greener II bond issue that is not available this year for farmland preservation.

Chesapeake Bay Cleanup: In response to concerns raised by Sen. Vance (R-Cumberland), Sen. Madigan (R-Bradford) and Sen. Wozniak (D-Cambria) about the cost of the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy being borne by wastewater treatment plants and the lack of any funding in the Governor’s budget for that initiative, Secretary Wolff said farmers have been doing their share as part of the cleanup effort, noting agriculture has reduced nitrogen runoff by over 25 million pounds.

Sen. Madigan said, “you have no money to help municipalities meet the Bay reduction, next you’ll turn the screws on the farms and not help them, which means more farms will be lost for development.”

Hazardous Sites Funding: Sen. Mary Jo White (R-Venango) accused the Rendell Administration of reneging on its agreement to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program from the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax by not keeping the tax at 2.49 percent, rather than the reduction that was planned to 1.89 percent. Legislation Gov. Rendell signed into law last year restored the earmark for HSCA funding from the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax that was established by Gov. Casey in 1988. Budget Secretary Michael Masch said the HSCA funding bill was not sustainable and it took revenue from the General Fund.

Flooding: Robert P. French, Director of the PA Emergency Management Agency this week reacted to comments by Rep. Scavello (R-Monroe) who said he was concerned about a 40 percent cut in the agency’s budget from 2006-07 levels. This was a particular concern because three New York reservoirs are at 100 percent capacity and could cause flooding problems this Spring along the Delaware River.

French said statewide flood mitigation programs are being developed with the Department of Environmental Protection and Delaware River Basin Commission to deal with flooding issues caused by releases from the reservoirs.

In reaction to a question from Rep. Siptroth (D-Monroe), French said his agency is working on a update of floodplain maps throughout the state, but did not give an estimate of when the work would be completed.

Energy Proposals: Both the Small Business Advocate William Lloyd and Consumer Advocate Sonny Popowsky provided comments on several energy proposals being considered by the General Assembly dealing with the transition to market-based electricity pricing, requiring utilities to develop conservation programs and the Governor’s Energy Independence Initiative.

Energy Education: Wendall Holland, Chairman, Public Utility Commission, told the House Appropriations Committee that Gov. Rendell’s Office requested the PUC remove a proposed $5 million consumer education program designed to educate the public about coming changes in electric pricing, energy conservation and electric choice. Chairman Holland said, in spite of the elimination of the program request, he and his fellow Commissioners strongly support the need for the program.

Green Investments: State Treasurer Robin L. Wiessman was asked by Rep. Dally (R-Northampton) questioned whether the Treasurer’s office recent investment of $40 million in green companies, in part that implement a climate change action plan, fit into the agency’s “prudent person investment” rule that the Office is required to follow. Treasurer Wiessman said that policy was the “dominant and primary” assessment that guides all Treasury’s investments, but when she took office she looked at ways of improving all investment policies, including the Keystone Green Investment Strategy which guides investments in green companies.

Link: Senate Republican Budget Hearing Summaries/Hearing Videos

2/29/2008