Comparing the Governor’s DCR FY2023 Budget Proposal
The comparison below illustrates the disinvestment in state parks since 2009. The Administration account and the all-important Parks and Recreation Operations account have remained below 2009 funding levels for the past 14 years. On the other hand, the Retained Revenue account, funded by parking and campground fees, leases and other income, grew from less than $10 million to $25 million during that time. The Seasonal Workers account, used to try to make up for the 300 positions DCR lost during this period, also saw significant increases. In fact, these are the only two accounts that have seen any meaningful increase during this period.
The Governor’s FY2023 proposal has taken the Retained Revenue account, the subject of much criticism during the DCR Special Commission hearings, and buried it in three other accounts. If the Administration and the Legislature want to take a real step to reform park funding, they will fund the park system directly from general revenue tax dollars and let all income DCR takes in go to the state’s General Fund like every other state agency. Allowing DCR to keep some of the money it takes in, currently an 80/20 split between the agency and the General Fund, started out as a way to allow DCR to get some niceties it could not afford in the regular budget. But it soon became a way to cut tax dollars and put responsibility for adequately funding the agency on the backs of park users. Getting rid of retained revenue entirely would enable the agency to plan yearly rather than month-to-month, a desperately needed reform at the agency. According to the Special Commission Report (pg.53), the Legislature can do this by simply removing the language in the Conservation and Recreation Administration account (2800-0100 – see language below). MCV urges the Legislature to take this step.
Governor Baker’s FY2023 budget proposal divides the $32 million the Legislature and the Governor projected DCR should raise from the FY22 budget and slots 73% in the State Parks and Recreation account and 24% in the Seasonal Worker account with the remaining 3% going for administrative purposes – meaning there is virtually no increase in this year’s budget.
Think about this. During the last 14 years DCR has seen a massive increase in park use, much of it due to the pandemic. During that time we have added more than 50,000 acres of land to the system while cutting DCR’s staff and budget. Adding insult to injury, the state budget increased by $20 billion. The end result is that our park system continues to operate with a budget stuck in 2009 – a time when the Patriots only had three Super Bowl rings. We can and must do better.
MCV urges the Legislature and the Governor, per the Special Commission, to truly remove Retained Revenue from the DCR budget and improve department planning by deleting the language in the Administration account. We also urge the Legislature to increase the Parks and Recreation Operations account by $10 million to expand the full-time engineering staff and get more boots on the ground in our parks. An increase of this size may sound like a lot, but it represents slightly less than one percent over a 14-year disinvestment in our park system.
Finally, something about earmarks: The Governor’s proposal contains an earmark for a $3.3 million snow and ice removal account – a public works service – in the Parks and Recreation Operations account. Earmarks are usually a legislative tactic, but governors both past and present are not immune. After nearly 14 years of funding stagnation in DCR, earmarks have become an unfortunate way to circumvent the system to complete a local project or, as in the Governor’s case, to hide expenses. Earmarks in any of the above FY2023 accounts reduce the overall capacity of our park system. Earmarks look like budget increases, but they are only one-year additions that do nothing to improve DCR’s ability to manage the state’s park system.
If you know your legislators intend to seek earmarks, please urge them to fund them in a separate, distinct earmark account that will not undercut the badly needed $10 million increase and the overall capacity of DCR to sustain the entire 500,000 acres of our shared natural resources.
The budget language that needs to be removed from the Conservation and Recreation Administration account # (2800-0100) for the Governor to eliminate Retained Revenue is below.
“…provided, that notwithstanding section 3B of Chapter 7 of the General Laws, the department shall establish or renegotiate fees, licenses, permits, rents and leases and adjust or develop other revenue sources to fund the maintenance, operation and administration of the department.”
For more information on retained revenue, see page 53 of the DCR Special Commission Final Report, released in December 2021, here.
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