In September 2017, Patrick McDonnell, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection secretary, called out state lawmakers for planning to transfer money out of dedicated department funds to help with the state’s budget.
So, when McDonnell met late last week with the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the department’s 2019-20 budget, lawmakers couldn’t help but notice that the spending plan including taking nearly $17.5 million from two dedicated funds to pay for DEP operations.
"I’m saying I’m not against it," said Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, in the Feb. 14 hearing. "I’m just curious at the 180-degree reverse from your position two years ago to today."
McDonnell told lawmakers crafting a budget is an annual process and is fluid. That’s what enabled the DEP to take $19 million from the state Recycling Fund and almost $7.5 million from the Environment Stewardship Fund to finance department operations. In addition, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s spending plan calls for another $8 million from the ESF to cover such initiatives as the Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Source Abatement Fund.
"These are transfers being done without impacts on (the funds’) level of effort," McDonnell said. "For example, in the Environment Stewardship Fund, by moving the debt service out of the Environment Stewardship Fund, it allows those grant line items to remain relatively constant."
Democrats on the panel were skeptical.
Rep. Matt Bradford, the committee’s Democratic chairman, questioned the sustainability of the funds. Rep. Leanne Krueger, D-Folsom, raised concerns that the transfers could happen on a yearly basis for the next four or five years.
"Environmental groups and, frankly, many in this room have been fighting for years, even decades, to keep this funding for community projects, and some of us believe these are actually restricted funds," she said.
The hearing also generated questions on Wolf’s Restore Pennsylvania proposal, which would create a severance tax to help address such issues as brownfield remediation, disaster recovery and preparedness, flood control and bolstering the state’s infrastructure.
In his written comments to the committee, McDonnell said the severance tax could also address cleaning hazardous waste sites across the state.
"Outside of finding an extra $30 million in general fund dollars, Restore Pennsylvania could be the answer to finding new additional revenue to fund this critical program," he said.
This isn’t the first time Wolf has proposed a severance tax on natural gas produced in the state. The Republican-controlled legislature has opposed it citing fears it would curtail energy sector jobs in the state.
Even some Democrats raised concerns about the tax. Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, said the tax would rely on extracting fossil fuel to help clean up the state. She also wondered if the tax would provide a reliable revenue stream for the initiative.
"I think that this move would hold us back, in fact, from reaching the clean energy economy we need and the renewable energy jobs our constituents need," she said.
McDonnell is expected to return to the committee at a later date to answer questions from Republican Rep. Jason Ortitay and Chairman Stan Saylor regarding the impact legal challenges have on the department’s budget. State law requires the DEP to pay attorney fees when an opposition group successfully challenges a permit issued by the agency. McDonnell told lawmakers his staff was still compiling data from the department’s regional offices.