Message from Chuck Anastas, Chairman, MCV Board of Directors:
April 12, 2019
Dear MCV Supporter,
As you may know, Mass Conservation Voters submitted oral and written testimony to the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways & Means in favor of increasing the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s FY 2020 parks and recreation operations budget (line item 2810-0100). MCV asked for $6.0 million more than the FY 2019 figure of $40.2 million. This is the budget that will take effect on July 1, 2019. House 1, the Baker Administration’s proposed budget, included a $2 million increase in this account. The House Ways & Means budget, just released, added another $2 million to this line item. House Chairman of the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee, Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, is offering an amendment to the HW&M budget that would add an additional $2 million to line 2810-0100, bringing it to the $6 million increase MCV and other conservation and environmental advocates support. Deliberations on that budget and proposed amendments will begin soon.
We apologize for the short notice, but we are asking you to contact your State Representatives and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors of Chairman Pignatelli’s amendment to DCR Line 2810-0100. Representatives have until 5 p.m. today, Friday, April 12, to sign on as co-sponsors. The more co-sponsors we have on the amendment, the better its chances for the House to adopt it in the final budget Representatives will send to the Senate for its consideration. If you don’t know who your State Representative is, you may find out here. You can call or email, or both if you have the ability to do so. But please take a few minutes to support this worthy cause if you can. You can simply ask your Representative to co-sponsor Chairman Pignatelli’s amendment to DCR line 2810-0100. Legislators rarely hear from constituents on actions at this level of the process. So even a few calls to House members will have an impact. Your call could be the one to push your Representative to sign on to the amendment.
Since 2007, DCR has lost about one-third of its staff. A $6 million increase in line 2810-0100 would allow DCR to continue making progress replacing those staff and keep pace with retirements that are coming on top of those losses. Specifically, it would allow DCR to staff a roving repair/maintenance crew to do routine maintenance and repairs now contracted out at about three times the cost of using in-house staff. It will allow DCR to hire engineers to inspect existing infrastructure and help on new capital projects. And it will help DCR hire about 25 percent of their top seasonal workers to reinforce staff at our parks that have suffered massive personnel cuts. These cuts have caused shorter open seasons, closed visitor centers and reduced preventive and routine maintenance. It is worth noting that a $6 million increase in line 2810-0100 would only put that line item $2 million above its FY 2015 appropriation of $44.1 million.
Thank you for your care and concern for our state’s public open spaces and other recreational facilities. Together we can help DCR come back from the devastating budget cuts that have left some parks and state forests with a single full-time staff person for most of the year, making it impossible for that person to satisfy the demands on his or her time. So please contact your State Representative and ask him or her to support Chairman Pignatelli’s $2 million amendment to DCR line item 2810-0100.
Thank you,
Chuck Anastas
Chairman, MCV Board of Directors