Law to streamline funding
Needed work on abandoned mines in the area could benefit from the streamlining of the funding process for the state’s conservation districts. While local conservation district managers were still unsure of how the newly passed bill would affect the allocating of funds, some hoped that by simplifying the funding process, it might allow more funding to come in for their district’s specific needs.
“We still need to know what aspects of our district will be enhanced by this,” said Marin Niverth, Greene Conservation District manager, adding that abandoned mines filling up with water is a concern in his area. He is hopeful that the new conservation district fund will help combine local efforts to reclaim the abandoned mines.
“These mines are overflowing and it will have a tremendous impact unless we get something done,” said Niverth. “We appreciate the work the legislators are doing and we hope this will weed out some of the steps in between the government and the conservation districts and make the funding process easier.”
Gary Stokum, Washington Conservation District manager, said he hoped that the fund would make it easier for the district to collect reimbursements. He said that for programs such as farmland preservation and erosion sedimentation control, the district has to submit claims for reimbursements from the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Environmental Protection.
“They process the requests as soon as they can, but it takes some time,” said Stokum. “Hopefully by putting everything together into one fund it will simplify the process and make it faster.”
According to Susan Marquart, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, the districts have had to obtain funding and reimbursements from multiple entities in the past. This fund will put all of the state’s conservation districts’ funding in one place.
Senate Bill 1224 will reorganize the flow of finances from many sources coming into the Conservation Districts, according to Destiny Zeiders, a representative at state Rep. Pete Daley’s (D-California) office. She said it will facilitate multi-year projects in the districts by adding a non-lapsing clause to the funds appropriated to the Conservation Commission.
“This is creating a special fund in the treasury so that any money coming in for the conservation districts can be deposited into that fund,” said Zeiders, explaining that fees the Conservation Commission collects, contributions from the public, and other funding would be placed in the fund to be allocated for specific projects and implementing new programs.
Marquart said that making the funding process easier is one of the things the new fund will help accomplish.
“This will simplify the process between the state government and the conservation districts so that we can spend more time doing the work we need to do,” said Marquart.
She explained that anyone who wants to transfer funds for specific programs within the conservation districts will now have the option to put it into a special fund that did not exist before. Once the fund is in place, Marquart said money will be allocated to specific programs on an as-needed basis.
“This will enable districts to have a source of funding that is non-lapsing,” said Marquart, explaining that in the past, money that was left over at the end of the year would have to go back to the state.
“We haven’t typically had money that was lost, but at the end of the year, if there was any money left over, it had to be reallocated by a certain time,” said Marquart. “This fund will make it much easier because we won’t be in such a panic to make reallocations at the last minute. That is a cumbersome process. This will give districts a way to distribute funds that they did not have in the past.”
Senate Bill 1224 will take effect 60 days after the governor signs it.