State government, inflation, and ignoring the First Rule of Holes combine to cut DCR operations by 10 percent

There is one bright spot in an otherwise dismal FY2027 budget for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) the Healey-Driscoll Administration signed into law on July 9. The budget for the DCR Parks and Recreation Operations account (2810-0100) is $105.7 million, $1.3 million more than the governor or the House of Representatives proposed earlier this year. 

In May, the Senate added the additional operations funding, largely in the form of a $1.0 million floor amendment filed by President Pro Tempore Will Brownsberger. The full Senate, the House-Senate Conference Committee, and the full Legislature then approved the increase. Unlike last year, the governor did not veto additional funds we sought from the Legislature. While we appreciate these actions, we lament the return to one step forward, two steps backward DCR budgets we had hoped were in the past.

During the Senate debate, Sen. Jamie Eldridge also filed amendments to level fund two accounts, operations and seasonal employees, at the FY2026 level. Neither of those amendments gained enough support to pass. MPA thanks both senators for their current and past support for our parks.

While $1.3 million is real money, this is no cause for celebration. The operations account has 7.1 percent less than the FY2026 appropriation of $113.8 million. Accounting for inflation of about three percent, operations took an effective cut of 10 percent in a $63.4 billion budget that increased by four percent over FY2026.

Meanwhile, neither the House nor the Senate took on the Administration's 2.8 percent cut to the Seasonal Employees account (2800-0501), which dropped from $29.3 million to $28.5 million, an $833,000 cut. Adjusted for an approximate three percent inflation rate, it is a 5.8 percent hit.  

There is no getting around the fact that these cuts compromise DCR’s ability to provide the 26.2 million people who annually visit our parks, beaches, forests, campgrounds, pools, and other assets with clean, safe, fully staffed, fully open facilities. A cut of this magnitude also applies the brakes to our $14.6 billion annual outdoor recreation economy that DCR and park users help fund. Not long ago, the Administration was touting that Massachusetts has the fastest growing outdoor recreation economy in the nation, providing an economic reason to support parks. 

Also lost in the conversation is a sobering statistic from the 2021 Special Legislative Commission on DCR. According to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Massachusetts was in last place among all states in per capita general revenue tax dollars spent on public open space. In the years since then, reasonable funding increases for DCR helped move us up that ladder, but only to 44th, according to BEA. This is a far from enviable status. 

This turn of events, along with recent cuts to DCR’s capital budget, hinders the agency’s ability to retire the $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog accumulated during more than a decade of extreme underfunding during and after the 2008 recession. Some $400 million of that total is due to deferred maintenance on our historic parkways, part of the first municipal park system in the nation. Without an adequate capital budget, DCR will never complete the Parkways Master Plan.  

What a difference a year makes

Last year, when the Administration and the House proposed small operations increases that were below inflation, MPA, with your help, sought and received legislative approval of a 3.5 percent increase to keep DCR just above the inflation rate. We sent a letter signed by 35 like-minded organizations asking the Administration to approve the increase. But the governor vetoed $400,000 from the operations account. We asked the Legislature to override that veto and last October it did just that.  

Earlier this year, 47 organizations joined us in asking for the same 3.5 percent increase for operations and seasonals for the FY2027 budget, once again, just enough to keep DCR above inflation. It quickly became clear that there was no appetite in the Legislature to do that. So, we asked to level fund operations and seasonals at the FY2026 level, which, due to inflation, would have been a three percent cut.

It is an understatement to say we are disappointed by this turn of events, especially following three years of reasonable budget increases for DCR, two offered by the Administration, which we happily supported, the third accomplished by advocates and the Legislature.  

Moving forward, we are glad the proposed ballot question to cut the state income tax from five to four percent has been ruled ineligible to appear on the November ballot. That would have removed upwards of $2.0 billion from the budget. Also in the good news column, state general revenue tax dollars over several months have exceeded expectations. If that trend continues, we will ask the Administration to file a supplemental appropriation to restore the funding DCR has lost.  

What can we do over the long haul?

We formed Mass Parks for All three years ago to unite park advocates under a single banner to support our parks inside and outside of state government. Our 200-plus organization database of park friends groups, watershed groups, land trusts and other like-minded advocates has proven to be a useful tool in shedding light on the plight of our parks and rallying advocates. At MPA’s request with assistance from like-minded organizations, we drove nearly 1,000 emails from park supporters like you into the Legislature in favor of DCR funding over the last 12 months.

Another useful resource would be a committed, effective Open Space Caucus within the Legislature. Such a caucus would in theory coalesce around DCR and the nearly half-million acres of land it stewards. As such, DCR is the largest land holder in the state, while our park system is one of the largest in the nation based on the size of our state. 

Currently, the Legislature has two caucuses that could generate broad support for our parks. But at present, the Parks Caucus and the Trails Caucus exist only on paper. In talking to legislators who attempted to make them effective voices for our parks and trails, the familiar lament is how difficult it is to get legislators interested in things that are not happening in their districts. That must change if DCR is to have any chance of delivering the 21st century park system that we all deserve, and that honors the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot, who with contemporaries created the first metropolitan park system in the nation in 1893. MPA will ask lawmakers to combine these two caucuses into one Legislative Open Space Caucus. 

Gubernatorial administrations that consistently support parks year in and year out would also be helpful. The Healey-Driscoll Administration’s first two budgets, fiscal years 2024 and 2025, and the Legislature’s approval of the same, began to reverse more than a decade of inadequate park funding. The Administration’s FY2026 proposal of a 2.5 percent increase for operations against a three percent inflation rate was a de facto budget cut, albeit a small one compared to this year. 

FY2027 represents a significant retreat from supporting our parks, which the pandemic proved beyond all doubt are must have assets, not want to have assets. 

This year, it would have taken about $15 million to give DCR the 3.5 percent increase in operations and seasonal employees accounts we sought - 0.024 percent of the $63.4 billion budget just approved. To our collective dismay, that proved to be a bridge too far for state government to cross, despite our $8.0 billion Stabilization fund, the so-called Rainy Day Fund. If state parks were a priority, this would not have happened. 

If we are to reverse this sad trend for more than a budget cycle or two, it will take all of us, MPA, our membership, allied organizations, the general public, the Legislature, and successive gubernatorial administrations pulling in the same direction for at least a decade. Only then will DCR get the operating and capital funding it needs to dig out of the hole that, let’s be honest, state government put the agency in starting in 2009. 

The First Rule of Holes is when you’re in one, stop digging. For several years, Massachusetts did just that, only to pick up the shovel again last February. Nevertheless, MPA is in it for the long haul. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We thank those of you inside and outside of state government who are all-in for our parks and implore the rest of you to join us in this effort.

Doug Pizzi is Executive Director of Mass Parks for All.