State Funding for CT threatened

The governor is seriously contemplating diverting funds from the real estate transfer tax to balance the state budget. That revenue has been critical funding for a lot of conservation efforts, including land acquisition for state parks, including our favorite one. Please contact the Governor’s office at 615-741-2001 and register your opposition to this move. If you want to read the short piece below, it will help explain what has been proposed. It is copied from the web site of the Tennessee Environmental Council, which can be accessed at
http://www.tectn.org/Issues-Land-Aquisition.htm

Thanks for all you do for the trail and for conservation – your help is really important now! Please forward this message at will – and make a call today. I talked to them this morning and was told they are getting a lot of calls. Please add yours to the count.

Best, Nora Beck

Nora BeckLand Conservation CoordinatorTennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation1205-A Linden AvenueNashville, TN 37212Phone: 615-386-3171; Fax: 615-386-3115www.tenngreen.org




"Budget Should Not Be Balanced On the Back of Dedicated Environment and Conservation Funds" (an opinion piece by Will Callaway, Executive Director, TEC)

There is no doubt that Governor Bredesen faces a monumental task in getting Tennessee’s fiscal house back in order. The budgetary mess left behind by the previous administration demonstrates what many have been saying for years: this is no way to run a government.
The governor’s efforts to halt the budgetary red ink are commendable and statutorily required. However, no member of the “Tennessee family,” as Bredesen phrased in delivering his budget, should be abandoned entirely. While most elements of state government will be impacted by the roughly nine percent cuts, some would be eliminated, entirely.

Through statutory changes requested in the governor’s budget, the following dedicated funds may be eradicated, channeling all revenues to the general fund:
Wetland Acquisition Fund
Local Parks and Recreation Fund
State Land Acquisition Fund
Agricultural Resource Conservation Fund

Through a portion of the real estate transfer fee the legislature created a dedicated revenue stream to address environmental and conservation goals in the state. Land acquisition for parks, wetland protection, agricultural conservation and many other valuable policy objectives are met through use of these dedicated funds. Taxes are levied with the intent and assurance that the revenues will be used for specified purposes.

Since their inceptions the Wetlands and State Parks Acquisition Funds have invested $97,404,146 to acquire 236,468 acres for the state. The Agricultural Resources Fund and the Local Parks Land Acquisition Fund have invested more than $54,473,000 in nearly 15,000 projects that affected all 95 Tennessee counties. Instead of taking a percentage of the funds, as is the case in most other areas of government, the governor’s legislative effort (introduced as SB 1991 and HB 2073) aims to transfer 100 percent of the revenues to the state’s general fund and changes the statute to make the diversion of funds permanent.

This is no way to run a government, either. Making statutory changes through the budget process is almost always bad business. These dedicated accounts must remain intact.
Members of the environmental community are not asking that the funds be exempt from sharing the burden, but do not eliminate them in a shortsighted rush to find every penny available.

The legislature should maintain the Tennessee code, as written, for all these funds. A one-year diversion of nine percent of each fund is appropriate given current budget conditions. This diversion should not be permanent. Like all other budgetary items, the use of the dedicated funds should be revisited next year. After all, we hired the governor and the legislature to do their job every year.

Budget problems should not be an excuse to raid long-standing, dedicated funds that serve so many constituents. We’ll all share the burden, but let’s do it in a fair manner.