Conservation Advocate

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The end of an era?

Posted on April 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

Will your call, letter, or meeting be the one to make the difference for conservation? It could, but you must act.

For two decades, Pennsylvania has made tangible and lasting investments in land conservation thanks to two taxes dedicated to that purpose: 15% of the Realty Transfer Tax for the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund $20.5M of the Cigarette Tax for farmland preservation. With the support of these dedicated tax revenues, Pennsylvania has been protecting and establishing recreational areas, important wildlife habitats and other green spaces that will define PA communities and shape the lives of Pennsylvanians for decades and centuries to come. Likewise, these dedicated tax revenues have been protecting the rich soils needed to ensure the security of Pennsylvania’s food supply and farm economy. There still is much to be done but the past two decades have put Pennsylvania on the right track.

However, we are perilously close to going off the track. Governor Corbett’s 2013 budget savages the Keystone Fund and farmland preservation. We can’t afford to lose these hugely successful and efficient programs; we can’t afford to lose the private and local investments that state conservation investments leverage. The threats to our special open spaces and productive soils won’t take a break if the proposed cuts become law.

The proposed budget:

Permanently redirects Keystone’s recreation, park and conservation funds to general state operations. This includes eliminating the only funding source that directs money specifically to land trust and community park and recreation projects.
Permanently redirects the farmland preservation funding share of the Cigarette Tax to general state operations. For 2012 and 2013, cigarette tax revenue would be “replaced” with bond money that otherwise would have been used for Growing Greener projects (like farmland preservation). Even if one were to find this trade acceptable, it still leaves a gaping problem: After use of two years of bond money, farmland preservation will have no funding. Its connection to the cigarette tax will be gone.

What can you do? Make personal contacts:

Call or write your legislators. RIGHT NOW. Tell them to: (a) keep the Keystone Fund intact so that it can deliver another two decades of conservation excellence and (b) oppose cutting farmland preservation’s connection to the cigarette tax.
Get the word out to your members, colleagues and friends. Lawmakers need to hear from a broad group of people. They need to understand that it’s about far more than helping individual farmers or a few outdoor recreation enthusiasts. It’s about the health of the the environment, the agricultural industry, local jobs, the environments and our communities.

When can you do it?

Don’t wait. Next week, budget discussion will intensify in Harrisburg. Catch legislators in their district offices this week or in Harrisburg at the beginning of next week.

Filed Under: Advocacy Tagged With: farmland, Keystone Fund, state budget

Farmland preservation funding tracked for elimination

Posted on April 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Governor Corbett’s 2012/2013 budget sets a course to permanently eliminate the only significant state dedicated funding for farmland preservation in Pennsylvania.

Farmland preservation receives $20.5M of Pennsylvania’s cigarette tax revenue each year.  The Governor’s budget proposal calls for permanently redirecting that funding to the state’s general fund. For 2012 and 2013, the Governor proposes to replace the cigarette tax revenue with anticipated revenue from bond premiums.  However, after these transition years, Pennsylvania will have no significant source of funding for farmland preservation.

State funding for farmland preservation creates an incentive for counties and townships to allocate local funds for farmland preservation.  This relationship is how Pennsylvania has preserved more than 450,000 acres of farmland on more than 4,000 Pennsylvania family farms.  Access to a steady source of matching funding has been a key reason that this partnership has been so successful.

Governor Corbett’s proposal would devastate the most successful farmland preservation program in the nation, a program that has enjoyed consistent support from Pennsylvania voters and tax payers for nearly a quarter century.

What Can YOU do?

Call or write your state senator and representative now and tell them to protect cigarette tax revenue for farmland preservation because investing in agriculture means investing in our future!

Why is funding for farmland preservation important?

Farmland preservation is an investment in our agricultural industry.

  • The number one industry in Pennsylvania, Agriculture has a $50 Billion impact on our state economy.
  • Agriculture provides one of every seven jobs in Pennsylvania.
  • Without farmland, there will be no agricultural industry.

Farmland preservation helps to balance municipal budgets.

  • Farmland generates more in property tax revenue than it demands in municipal services.
  • Housing developments and the services they require are a net revenue loss for communities.
  • Without farmland, costs of community services will rise.

Tell your state senator and representative that farmland preservation is a long term investment that cannot be traded to balance the short the term budget.

Tell them to protect cigarette tax revenue for farmland preservation!

 

Filed Under: Advocacy Tagged With: farmland, state budget

Stop the cuts! Sign the petition.

Posted on April 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

September 2013

Governor Corbett proposes the permanent diversion of the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund revenue that supports local park, trail and open space protection projects to general government operations.  His 2012-13 budget would also phase out dedicated funds for the state farmland preservation program.

Letters and face-to-face meetings with legislators in their local offices are very much needed to prevent the Governor’s proposals from becoming reality. However, here’s a small step that won’t take you more than a few seconds: Sign the petition to show your support of conservation funding. (Then take those other actions!)

Click the banner below to sign the petition.

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Together, we can STOP THE CUTS!
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Filed Under: Advocacy Tagged With: Keystone Fund, state budget

Oil & Gas Lease Fund Continues to Be Siphoned

Posted on March 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

Governor Corbett’s proposed 2012-13 state budget continues the practice begun under Governor Rendell of funding DCNR’s general operations through Oil and Gas Lease Fund revenues rather than through the state’s general fund.

Historically, the Oil and Gas Lease Fund revenue had been dedicated for improving state park and forest infrastructure and acquiring lands important to the integrity and quality of the state parks and forests. Act 50 of 2009 provides $50 million for an annual appropriation from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund to DCNR. Governor Corbett’s budget will mean an additional $19.5M of the Oil and Gas Lease Fund to be allocated for state parks operations. The budget proposal does not indicate a transfer of excess funds going to the state’s general fund.

Oil & Gas Lease Fund Budget Sheet (2012-13)

Filed Under: Public Policy Tagged With: state budget, state forests, state parks

Legislative Budget and Finance Committee Reports on Growing Greener 2

Posted on March 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

As required by Pennsylvania House Resolution 2009-17, the nonpartisan Legislative Budget and Finance Committee reviewed Growing Greener 2. Download the committee’s report by clicking on the following link: Review of the Commonwealth’s Growing Greener II Initiative.

Growing Greener 2 has had positive economic and environmental impacts across the state, saving hundreds of farms, bringing streams back to life, improving state parks, creating thousands of jobs, plugging hundreds of abandoned and leaking gas wells, remediating abandoned strip mines, preserving tens of thousands of acres of green space important to communities, and more.

More than 60 percent of Pennsylvania voters approved the $625 Growing Greener bond in a statewide initiative in May 2005. However, the bond money from Growing Greener 2 is essentially gone. Unless Growing Greener is renewed, the number of land conservation, recreation and water protection projects initiated in Pennsylvania’s local communities in the coming decade will be a small fraction of those completed in the previous decade.

Filed Under: Public Policy Tagged With: state budget

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Land Trusts, Trail Groups, Local Governments, and Other Landowners Get New Liability Protection

October 25, 2018

On October 24, 2018, Governor Wolf signed Act 98 into law. Act 98 amends the Pennsylvania Recreation Use of Land and Water Act (RULWA) to better protect from liability those who open their properties to the public for recreation without charge. Improvements to the law include: Explicitly listing paths, paved and unpaved trails, fishing and […]

Governor Signs HB 2468

June 25, 2018

Governor Wolf quietly signed HB 2468 (and several other bills) into law on Sunday, June 24. The bill is now Act 45 of 2018. A correction to the previous PALTA communication: Act 45 should apply retroactively to McCormick Farm, so, hopefully, the Cumberland Valley School District will cease its pursuit of the farm. The district […]

HB 2468 Is on Governor’s Desk

June 25, 2018

Friday evening, after the Senate passed HB 2468 (37-12), the House voted to concur (177-15) with the Senate’s changes to the bill. The governor is expected to sign the bill. This is a thrilling victory for conservation! This landmark, bipartisan legislation provides a crucial safeguard for conservation easements from the unnecessary exercise of eminent domain […]

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