MPA to submit testimony on proposed DCR budget cuts
The FY2027 budget season kicks into high gear on Tuesday, March 31, when the legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means holds its first hearing to accept advocate testimony. The hearing will begin at noon in the State House’s Gardner Auditorium.
Mass Parks for All will be testifying in favor of a modest but critical 3.5 percent increase in two accounts that fund most day-to-day operations at the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Parks and Recreation Operations (2810-0100) and Seasonal Employees (2800-0501).
The governor’s proposed budget, House Bill 2, or H.2, as submitted, would cut these accounts by 8.3 and 2.9 percent, respectively. MPA submits that if we want fully staffed, fully open, clean, safe parks, campgrounds, beaches, pools, and other DCR assets this summer, these cuts represent a bridge too far for the agency to absorb.
If you can, please consider joining us on Tuesday to show your support for MPA, DCR, and ultimately your state parks. A roomful of advocates wearing our new “I ❤️ Parks” sticker will be noticed. We had a handful of supporters join us at the agency-only testimony hearing before Ways and Means at UMass Amherst on March 10, and we made an impression.
You may sign up to testify online until noon today. You can testify for a group or for yourself. Oral testimony is usually two to three minutes long. You can sign up to testify at the hearing on Tuesday morning, but those people will be taken as time allows. You can also email written testimony to House Ways and Means and Senate Ways and Means. Personal stories about how these budget cuts would affect your park are particularly compelling to legislators. While the deadline to submit written testimony varies, it’s best to submit it as soon as possible, certainly during the week after the hearing if possible.
We plan to meet at the Gardner Auditorium between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. But please note that we don’t know when we will get our turn at the mic, so it could be a fairly long afternoon. If you can make it, please contact Assistant Executive Director Kat Powers and let her know. It’s important that legislators know that park friends groups, other stakeholders, and visitors stand behind this budget increase for DCR.
Help us end the one step forward two steps backward funding DCR suffered from for more than a decade during and after the great recession, when Massachusetts fell to last in the nation in per capita general revenue tax dollars spent on public open space (pg. 60).
Meanwhile, we have a sign-on letter in support of our request for DCR’s budget that more than 40 park friendly organizations from across the state have signed. If you represent an organization please consider signing it before we present it to Ways and Means.
Finally, the DCR Stewarship Council, a legislatively created oversight board formed in 2004 when the Legislature merged the Metropolitan District Commission (urban parks) and the Department of Environmental Management (all other state parks) has also written a letter in support of this increase. We thank the Council for supporting funding for our parks. Please feel free to express your gratitude via DCR Manager of Stewardship Programs and Strategic Initiatives, Matthew Perry.
Environmental Bond Bill to move forward in the Senate
The Senate Ways and Means Committee is currently reviewing the Environmental Bond Bill, AKA the Mass Ready Act. The bill represents a five-year capital spending plan for environmental projects, including DCR, which has a $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog that accumulated during years that the agency was severely underfunded.
The bill’s line items represent the authorized maximum level that agencies may borrow for projects over the life of the bill. Those authorizations are then parsed out each year in the agencies’ annual capital budget.
If you’ve been following this issue with us, you know that in a departure from past practice, the Joint Committee of Environment and Natural Resources reported the bill out of committee favorably with no changes. The bill then went to the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets for review. Bonding then sent the bill to Senate Ways and Means, again with no changes. Ways and Means is currently working on the bill and any changes to the Senate version will be made by that committee.
As part of the statewide Environmental Bond Bill Coalition, MPA and our allies are seeking increases in four line items in the bill. They are DCR authorizations for land acquisition, general park projects, and parkways. The fourth line item we seek to increase has to do with funding for the MassTrails Grants, administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge has agreed to support these changes and sent a letter detailing them to Senate Ways and Means Chair Mike Rodrigues. Four other senators, Peter Durant, Mike Rush, John Keenan, and Nick Collins, signed the letter with Eldridge. Please thank them all and please contact your senator to ask Ways and Means to support these changes. This is especially important if your state senator sits on the Ways and Means Committee.
We are anticipating the Senate may take action on the bill sometime in early April. So please reach out to your elected officials as soon as possible. Thank you as always for supporting our parks.
Save the Date: First Focus on the Friends meet-up at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area
Mass Parks for All will hold its first Focus on the Friends meet-up on Saturday, May 16, from 1-3 p.m. at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton.
We are planning an afternoon of special guests, fun activities, and informative talk, as well as the chance to meet park friends and other stakeholders from across the state. Watch this space for details as this not-to-be-missed-event takes shape.
And finally, if you would like to support our work with a tax deductible contribution, please make any size contribution you can. If you can make even a small contribution monthly, it helps us tremendously as we plan our work throughout the year. Thank you again, and remember, the park you save may be your own.