The DCR Retained Revenue Account is Slowly Supplanting Operating Funds
By Doug Pizzi | February 10, 2021
Thanks to Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Stewardship Council Chairman Nate Walton, the Stewardship Council Finance Subcommittee, and state DCR finance staff for a detailed presentation on DCR’s retained revenue account at the council’s January meeting. A special thanks to DCR’s Lisa Barstow for providing a recording of the session now seen on our website.
It turns out there is a lot to the retained revenue account, and it is a lot for DCR to manage every year. First, DCR must spend a lot of staff time and effort, too much time and effort in our opinion, chasing an ever increasing, unrealistic revenue target the Legislature and Administration throw at the agency. In the vernacular, we call it moving the goalposts. That staff time would be better spent maintaining and improving current facilities. Second, as it is with most state spending accounts, any money DCR does not spend by the end of the fiscal year goes back to the General Fund, never to be seen again.
The Legislature and the Governor should follow Stewardship Councilor Jack Buckley’s suggestion and allow DCR to keep unexpended retained revenue dollars from year to year.
Allowing DCR to keep a percentage of the money it raises as retained revenue, now capped at 80 percent, started decades ago as a way to reward DCR for a job well done, a way to get those extras the operating budget may not allow. After the 2008 recession, it quickly became a way to supplant budget appropriated operating funds with money raised directly from taxpayers and others who pay DCR for various rights and services. Between FY2015 and FY2020, projected retained revenue has risen from 20.4 percent of total operating funds to 30.2 percent of total operating funds. At a minimum, the Legislature and the Governor should follow Stewardship Councilor Jack Buckley’s suggestion and allow DCR to keep unexpended retained revenue dollars from year to year.
Following DCR’s presentation, MCV is even more determined to see the Legislature and Administration cap the retained revenue account at $20 million. Adding more user fees and increasing others is no way to run a state parks agency that should be committed to free access to all of our parks and affordably priced recreational opportunities for all of our citizens.
DCR Commissioner Jim Montgomery, the former DCR budget chief, had a lot to add to the discussion. One of the more interesting exchanges occurred when a councilor asked Montgomery what he would do if he had another hundred million dollars to spend on DCR. He responded that DCR could not spend it because it does not have the capacity. It was a shocking admission by an agency with close to a billion-dollar deferred maintenance backlog. But honest? You bet.
Despite DCR’s tremendous work during the pandemic, the day-to-day work has put undue pressure on our state park agency.
Running a state parks agency is a complicated amalgam of public works, including road maintenance and water and sewer system operations, historic preservation, park and forest management and recreational programming. Despite DCR’s tremendous work during the pandemic, the day-to-day work has put undue pressure on our state park agency. DCR is only seventeen years old, a mere teenager. If it is to grow into the agency the people of this state need and deserve, then, yes, it needs greater capacity.
That is not gained by sleight of hand card tricks like moving DCR’s responsibilities for things such as historic parkways to another agency and pretending the problem is fixed. It means digging in and working to make DCR better funded and adequately staffed. The past two years have seen DCR’s operating budget grow by $10 million. To no one’s surprise, the retained revenue account has suffered under the pandemic. We are grateful to the Legislature and Administration for their support during this critical time. More staff hires, particularly in the decimated engineering department, are giving DCR more capacity to carry out its mission. But we will not catch up to the massive underfunding stemming from the last recession without a concerted and committed effort from all of us inside and outside state government who care about our state parklands.
That leaves us on this sour note.
Governor Baker’s budget reduces the parks and recreation operations account by approximately $4.0 million.
Despite the increased use of our parks during the pandemic, up triple digits in some locations, and DCR’s critical work keeping them open and safe, the Governor has disappointed with his recommendations for the DCR FY22 budget. Gov. Baker’s budget reduces the parks and recreation operations account (2810-0100) from FY21 by approximately $4.0 million. To make matters worse, he wants to increase the retained revenue account (2810-2042) by more than $4.0 million. This puts ill-advised pressure on DCR to do more with less at a time when the agency has proven it provides essential services to our residents and visitors, which in turn supports Massachusetts’ annual $16 billion outdoor economy.
At the very least, the Legislature should reverse those numbers. MCV would like to see the Legislature significantly increase the operating budget, as it did in the last two fiscal years, most recently over Gov. Baker’s veto. Then, in a nod to our economic and public health reality, reduce the unrealistic retained revenue target. The pandemic responsible for reducing DCR’s retained revenue take last year, combined with greatly increased use of DCR properties, will be with us at least through FY22. Let’s acknowledge that.
We’ll have more on the budget in the weeks ahead. Stay with us. The park you save may be your own.
Doug Pizzi is the Executive Director of Massachusetts Conservation Voters