Budget Briefing: Time To End The Downward Spiral Of Environmental Funding

As the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf begin their final few weeks of work to put a state budget in place by June 30, it is a good time to remember the continuous, downward spiral of environmental funding over the last 12 years.

The following budget briefing was prepared by former DEP Secretary David Hess for a workshop at the PA Land Trust Association Conference in Gettysburg Thursday.

In his inaugural budget address in March, Gov. Wolf said he has three priorities: jobs that pay, schools that teach and government that works.

I believe Pennsylvania’s environmental priorities should be: restore jobs that were cut, programs that teach and demand environmental programs that work.

As with Gov. Wolf’s budget, it won’t be easy.

Over the last 12 years authorized staff positions at DEP have dropped nearly 15 percent without a commensurate reduction in the numbers of laws or programs it administers.  The comparable staff reductions in other state agencies averaged 6 percent.

In 2003 the authorized complement of DEP was 3,200 positions.  Gov. Wolf’s budget proposes 2,731, with a 50 position increase.

The most significant cuts in staff have come in the water quality programs in both regional offices and central office because most of these positions are supported by General Fund monies.

In 2007, the then DEP Secretary told the Senate Appropriations Committee, “We cut into things you might be hearing about, we cut through the meat and into the bone” when answering questions about the agency’s 2007-08 budget request.

In 2009, the Governor furloughed or eliminated 333 full time positions at DEP and DCNR; only the second time staff were furloughed since the agencies were formed in 1971.

In 2010, the then DEP Secretary told the House Appropriations Committee of DEP’s budget-- “now we are down to the bone or close to the bone” in terms of having the resources needed to accomplish its mission to protect the environment.

When he signed the FY 2010-11 budget, the Governor said it represented reductions in General Fund monies going to DEP to less than FY 1994-95 levels, erasing nearly 17 years of forward funding progress. 

While DEP did get a $12.4 million General Fund increase in FY 2014-15, the first significant increase in 12 years, agency funding is still way below where it had been a decade ago, again with no commensurate reduction in the programs it has to administer.

But DEP still lost staff positions.

To his credit, Acting DEP Secretary John Quigley was very plainspoken at his budget hearings in the Senate and House in March.

He told the Senate staff reductions at DEP have “hollowed out” the agency and noted DEP’s staff cuts have been over double the average of all state agencies-- 6 percent, versus nearly 15 percent for DEP.

Again to his credit, the Acting Secretary was very frank about the fact some programs are suffering. 

He said Pennsylvania is not meeting its commitments to clean up the Chesapeake Bay Watershed because we do not devote enough resources to the job.

Right now, for example, only 25 percent of the farmers that ask for help putting conservation practices now get that help.  The other 75 percent want to do the right thing, but can’t get the help.

Pennsylvania, in fact, has just 598 days (as of May 11) to put practices on the ground-- primarily on farms-- to meet the nutrient and sediment reductions required to meet the 2017 milestone.

Quigley called for a “reboot” of the program.  He promises a plan.

This isn’t about blame.  That is never useful. 

I’m trying to scare you so you do something about it.

Democrat and Republican Governors, Senate and House members have all done the same thing-- cut or diverted environmental funding by over $2.4 billion over the last 12 years.

For example--

Starting in 2009, over $419 million generated by leasing state forest land for Marcellus Shale drilling was diverted to balance the state’s General Fund budget and not used for conservation purposes. It was used to buy paperclips and keep the lights on in state offices.

Primarily Republicans can take credit for that one.

Starting in 2007, $335.7 million in waste fees were diverted from the Environmental Stewardship Fund or Growing Greener, now were going instead to pay debt service for the one-time Growing Greener II bond issue for the next 25 years. 

Democrats can claim credit here.

Starting in 2004, $635 million in grants were cut to support wastewater treatment plant operations. 

Actually, this was both.

In 2002 Pennsylvania had over 11,000 people in its Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program trained to monitor water quality and report their results.  In 2009 financial support for the program was all but ended. (Click Here and read page 35).  

Democrats again.

Between 1997 and 2007 over 2,900 senior volunteers became part of the Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps whose primary mission was to protect water quality. 

On its 10th anniversary in 2007, and after being honored by the United Nations Environmental Programme Honour Roll of 500 in a ceremony in which the Emperor of Japan took part, funding for the program was discontinued.

In this case, Republicans actually passed a law reestablishing the program, but it was still never refunded.

The non-profit group Nature Abounds is just now in the process of rebuilding this program.

True, the Act 13 drilling impact fees, the one-time Growing Greener II bond issue and the 2013 funding increases for the Dirt and Gravel Road Program devoted more dollars to abandoned mine reclamation, watershed restoration and stabilizing dirt roads, but this is no where near the amounts invested prior to 2003. 

Instead, these initiatives were trying to make up for funding previously cut from environmental programs.

There are some encouraging signs in Gov. Wolf’s proposed budget--

-- 50 new positions at DEP for the oil and gas and related programs, although other programs still are running short-handed;

-- $500 million PennVEST revenue bond for drinking water and wastewater projects;

-- DCNR’s budget takes a step toward weaning the agency off of oil and gas drilling revenues to pay its operational costs; and

-- A $325 million energy bond issue covering all sources of energy.

The disappointments include nothing to address the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, abandoned mine reclamation or other water quality issues and only a tiny percentage of the proposed natural gas severance tax goes for environmental purposes.

As I said, my purpose is to scare you into doing something, and not continue to give political leaders of whatever party a pass on environmental issues.

Also encouraging are some statements made by Senate and House members during the budget hearings suggesting programs that need critical funding now, including the Chesapeake Bay Watershed cleanup because it is something we must do.  (Click Here for Rep. Everett’s comments.  Click Here for Sen. Yaw’s comments.)

At this moment, legislation is being seriously considered in the Senate that would completely derail the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort by diverting resources from helping farmers to funding costly, capital-intensive solutions to reduce nutrients that do not count toward Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup milestones.

The company behind the bill decided that since it can’t pay off its $7.8 million PennVEST loan because it has no income (it said it shouldn’t have to), it instead is trying to create another program to get even more taxpayer money.

Bills have been introduced in the General Assembly to bulldoze streams, rollback endangered species protection and eliminate the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards.

If you and I and the tens of thousands of people around the Commonwealth who call ourselves environmentalists want to stop this downward spiral, then we need to let our voices be heard clearly and often.

We draw the line here.

We expect to move forward, not simply make up for past cuts.

There, I hope I scared you.

NewsClips:

Industry Warns Of Negative Impacts From Wolf’s Severance Tax

Rep. Harper Talks About Her Severance Tax Proposal For Pensions

Butler Candidates Differ Over Severance Tax, Drilling Fee

Op-Ed: Sever Wolf’s Natural Gas Severance Tax

Op-Ed: Fish & Boat Commission Seeking Tax Revenue

Independent Budget Report Contains Good Short-Term News

PA Fiscal Outlook Better For Now

Wolf: Revenue Surge Doesn’t Affect His Budget Recipe

Sen. Ward To Serve As Interim Appropriations Chair

Sen. Browne To Face Drunk-Driving Charge In Crash

Related Articles

PA Environmental Funding: Eat Your Vegetables, Then You’ll Get Dessert

Funding Deficit For Basic PA Environmental Programs Now $2.4 Billion

PA Isn’t Cleaning Up Our Rivers And Streams Fast Enough


5/11/2015

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