Paul Doerwald – Page 3

2016-17 Budget Update

Posted on February 12, 2016

Updated 2/12/2016

The Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund: Increase of $8.6 million
Agriculture Conservation and Easement Purchase Fund: Increase of $1.1 million
Environmental Stewardship Fund: dispersing $108.4 million (including a $35 million from Oil & Gas Lease Fund and $6.1 million from Marcellus Legacy Fund; Growing Greener II debt service is $36.3 million.
Oil and Gas Lease Fund: revenue projections at $48 million (down $12 million from 2015-16 and down $66 million from 2014-15).
- Funds from DCNR decreases from $69.7 to $63.2 to $36 million
- No 2016-2017 funds listed as available for State Parks Operations from $45 (2014) and $21.4 (2015)
- No 2016-2017 funds listed as available for State Forests Operations from $17.5 (2014) and $10.5 (2015)
- Gov. Wolf is proposing an increase in the land fill tipping fee by $1.75 per ton.
  - increase is expected to generate $35 million/year
  - revenue will be deposited into the Oil & Gas Lease Fund and enable transfers (as authorized by Act 13 of 2012) to Environmental Stewardship Fund and Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund
  - read memo: Pennsylvania Landfill Disposal Tipping Fees
Act 13 Impact Fee: revenue slightly down from $186.7 (2015-16) to $186.2 (2016-17).
Heritage Areas Program: Zeroed out.

PALTA Urges Congress to Renew Land and Water Conservation Fund

Posted on December 21, 2015

PALTA advocated for renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which was renewed in December 2015 by Congress. Below is a PALTA opinion piece regarding LWCF published by Pennsylvania media outlets earlier that month:

Senators and Representatives should not leave Washington without renewing a modest program that helps preserve our nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage.

For 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided crucial funding to protect and enhance national icons like the Grand Canyon and Gettysburg battlefields, as well as national wildlife refuges and community parks.

Sadly, Congress let authorization for the Fund lapse this year. As a result, America, the nation that invented national parks, may no longer have a dedicated funding source for protecting natural and historically important lands. Congress, if it fails to act, will deal a harsh blow to efforts to conserve America’s most important places, even as America adds 2-3 million to its population each year.

Monies for the Land and Water Conservation Fund come from royalties paid for extraction of offshore oil and gas. It’s commonsensical – use proceeds from the depletion of one natural (and publicly-owned) resource to invest in others.

The Fund has supported park and conservation efforts across the Commonwealth: the Flight 93 National Memorial, Valley Forge National Historic Park, Johnstown Flood National Memorial, Allegheny National Forest, Brandywine Battlefield and many other significant places.

Bills are pending in Congress to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the program. Our Senators and Representatives mustn’t fail to reach agreement on this bipartisan matter before year’s end. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has made sound conservation investments for decades. Let’s not be the generation that fails to invest in America’s heritage and future.

Congress Passes Permanent Conservation Easement Tax Incentive

Posted on December 20, 2015

December 20, 2015

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association joins the Land Trust Alliance in praising Congress for voting to make permanent a tax incentive supporting land conservation.

In a strong bipartisan action, the House voted 318-109 and the Senate voted 65-33 to pass the bills that included the tax incentive.

Farmers, ranchers, the public and generations of future Americans will directly benefit from the incentive that encourages landowners to place a conservation easement on their land to protect important natural, scenic and historic resources. The Alliance led its more than 1,100 member land trusts and 5 million supporters through a collaborative, multi-year campaign to secure the incentive’s permanency.

First enacted in 2006, the incentive is directly responsible for conserving more than 2 million acres of America’s natural outdoor heritage. Lands placed into conservation easements continue to be farmed, grazed, hunted or used for outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation, and these lands remain on county tax rolls, strengthening local economies.

Congress made the incentive permanent as part of a broad, year-end deal the White House supports. Once signed into law, the incentive will be applied retroactively to start Jan. 1, 2015. An earlier version of the incentive expired Dec. 31, 2014.

“As much as this moment energizes me and all who support land conversation, I know our work is not done,” said Andrew Bowman, who will become president of the Alliance when Wentworth retires Feb. 10. “The Alliance has cultivated in Washington and beyond a nonpartisan enthusiasm for land conservation and will build on that consensus to generate essential and lasting support for conservation.”

The incentive advanced through Congress as part of the America Gives More Act, a package of tax incentives to encourage charitable giving. It passed the House earlier this year, 279-137. A standalone version of the incentive, the Conservation Easement Incentive Act, earned 52 Senate sponsors this year. The agreement announced today also encourages donations to food banks and facilitates charitable deductions from IRAs.

“As we celebrate this landmark moment in land conservation, we are immensely grateful to our many champions in Congress, notably including Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, who was an original sponsor of this legislation and tirelessly worked with us toward this pivotal day,” Rand Wentworth, LTA’s outgoing Executive Director said. “This vote represents what Rep. Kelly has long recognized: It is in all our best interests to permanently protect important natural, scenic and historic resources for public benefit.”

“This commonsense, bipartisan legislation is about supporting farmers who want to preserve our nation’s most cherished natural resources for future generations,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (PA), lead sponsor of the House bill to make the incentive permanent. “Since 2006, conservation easements have conserved hundreds of thousands of acres of America’s farmland and open space for hunting, fishing, hiking and locally-sourced food production.”

Federal Conservation Easement Tax Incentive Helps Owners Conserve Land for the Public Benefit

Posted on December 15, 2015

Below is a PALTA opinion piece published in Pennsylvania media outlets in December 2015:

Helping Owners Conserve Land for the Public Benefit
by Andrew M. Loza, executive director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Farms and forests, natural areas, green spaces in our neighborhoods—all help define the places that we think of as home. These lands don’t just provide scenic beauty; they safeguard drinking water, reduce flooding, provide food and timber, protect wildlife and more.

They are also endangered. Between 1992 and 2005, urban land in Pennsylvania increased 131.4 percent—more than in all the previous millennia of human habitation. While the Great Recession brought the feverish pace of development down, lands crucial to our environmental, social and economic well being continue to be consumed for new development every day. Once these lands are gone, they are gone.

That’s why it’s more important than ever that we protect our most important unprotected green spaces. Land trusts do this by working in cooperation with landowners to implement a creative form of conservation that keeps lands open, natural and available for farming, forestry or other uses that involve minimal development — while also keeping them in the hands of private owners. A willing landowner may donate a conservation easement to a land trust. This conservation easement restricts development of the land in support of a stated conservation purpose. The generous landowner can use the donation to receive a modest tax deduction against her federal taxes.

This approach has seen tremendous success; Pennsylvania land trusts now hold conservation easements on 250,000 acres of irreplaceable green space—an area much larger than Delaware and Philadelphia Counties combined—thanks to the generosity of people and a small tax incentive.

Unfortunately, Congress allowed a 2006 law to expire that made sure that the tax incentive could be used by families with modest incomes, leaving in limbo landowners who want to conserve their lands.

The clock is ticking for our Senators to take urgent action to restore this vital conservation tool and make it permanent. Politicians from across the political spectrum support such action — the U.S. House voted to do so with overwhelming bipartisan support. U.S. Senator Casey has supported the legislation. For our sake and for future generations, we ask him to strongly advocate in the Senate for its passage. We ask Senator Toomey, who has not joined this bipartisan effort, to join his fellow Senators in making this crucial conservation tool permanent.

Support HB 544: Recreational Use of Land and Water Act

Posted on December 7, 2015

PALTA sent this letter to House representatives on December 7, 2015

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the 75 member organizations of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, I write to request your support of HB 544. The Association also asks you to oppose amendments that would diminish the bill’s protections for public-spirited landowners; at this writing this means voting “no” to all amendments including the amendments offered by Representatives Longetti, Gibbons and Neuman.

HB 544 would amend the Recreational Use of Land and Water Act to limit the liability for personal injury or property damage of landowners who generously open their lands to public use for hunting, bird watching, hiking and other forms of recreation. It ensures they are not punished for allowing the public on their land at no charge.

The Association’s member organizations work with landowners to conserve their land and to provide safe and responsible recreational opportunities to the public. Landowner fear of liability is often an obstacle to establishing trails and other outdoor recreational opportunities. The obstacle, to the detriment of the public, is frequently insurmountable. By providing assurance to landowners that their public-minded decisions to provide access won’t be punished with undue liability, House Bill 544 will expand recreational opportunities for the public.

Landowners and the public deserve the protections and recreational opportunities that this bill promotes. Both of their interests would benefit from the passage of this bill.

On behalf of the 75 member organizations of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association and the 120,000 Pennsylvanians they count as members, thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Andrew Loza