Friends of Upton State Forest Newsletter re: Park Funding
To download and read the FUSF Winter Newsletter, click here: https://friendsofuptonstateforest.org/the-friends/newsletters/.
The President’s Message
The state has about $2 billion in remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to distribute and the Massachusetts Conservation Voters (MCV) organization is encouraging citizens to send a message to their state legislators to allocate $100 million of these funds to state parks. The Friends Board agrees and will be sending a letter to legislators in support of allocating $100 million of the ARPA funds to the state parks. If you want to send a message to your legislators, the MCV website, massconservationvoters.com, provides a convenient way you to do that via email. It has a draft email that can be customized, and it will automatically send it to your legislators based on your zip code. This will be the second distribution of ARPA funds. The state recently passed legislation that distributed nearly $3 billion in ARPA funds and fiscal 2021 surplus state tax revenue. $15 million went to state parks, though Governor Baker originally proposed $100 million for state parks.
While visiting the MCV website I learned that the Governor’s proposed fiscal year 2023 budget eliminates DCR’s retained revenue account, which is funded with user fees, and fully funds it from general tax
revenues. For 2023, the Governor proposes a $73.5 million operating budget for DCR. In 2022, DCR’s
operating budget, the funds raised from general tax revenues, is $50.5 million and its retained revenue (user fees) target is $25 million. To meet the target of $25 million, DCR must raise fees of $32 million, as it can only keep 80% of the amounts raised. As put by the MCV, “the uncertainty of reaching that goal has a profound impact on the agency’s ability to plan for the fiscal year.” User fees also raise an equity issue.
For more information on how DCR is funded and the challenges it faces, I encourage you to check out the DCR Special Commission report, (which can be viewed at https://www.mass.gov/doc/umdi-dcr-specialcommission-report/download). The Special Commission was created by legislation to, among other things, “recommend ways DCR could improve the management, operations and asset conditions of its natural, cultural, and recreational resources). The report also focuses on the important role Friends groups have.
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