Senate wraps up FY27 budget with $1M added to DCR

The state Senate wrapped up work on its version of the FY2027 budget (S.3100) on May 22, adding $1.0 million to the proposed Senate Ways and Means Committee’s appropriation for the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) operating budget (2810-0100). This brings the total proposed funding for that account to $105.7 million. Both the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the House came in at $104.7 million.

While we’re thankful for the additional funding - a million dollars is a significant amount - it still represents a seven percent cut from this year’s appropriation, one percent less than the Administration and the House proposed. As it was in the governor’s and the House budget, the seasonal employee’s account (2800-0501) is still facing a 2.7 percent cut. 

We thank the 47 organizations that signed our letter seeking a 3.5 percent increase for operations and seasonal employees accounts, and the more than 500 of you who used our platform to directly email your legislators when we asked for your help. 

The entire budget will now go to a House-Senate Conference Committee, where both chambers will negotiate a final budget to approve and send to the governor for consideration. The fiscal year begins July 1.

The Senate’s increase came via a floor amendment offered by Senate President Pro Tempore Will Brownsberger. State Sen. Jamie Eldridge also filed two DCR budget amendments. They sought to fund the operations account and the seasonal employees account (2800-0501) at FY2026 levels, operations at $113.8 million and seasonal employees at $29.3 million. Neither of the Eldridge amendments passed. A similar House amendment, filed by Environment and Natural Resources Chair Christine Barber, also failed. We thank Rep. Barber and the 74 representatives who cosponsored her amendment, as well as senators Brownsberger and Eldridge and their colleagues for the Senate’s action. 

As a result, if the Conference Committee approves the DCR line items as proposed in the Senate, the budget going to the governor will contain a 7.1 percent cut to DCR operations and a 2.7 percent cut to DCR’s seasonal employees account. The governor can either approve or reduce the funding the legislators approve. Since the seasonal account is in line with what the governor submitted and the House and Senate approved, it is unlikely this account will receive more attention. 

That leaves the operations account as the subject of a possible veto. Last year, when the Legislature submitted a 3.5 percent increase in the operations account to the Administration, which had asked for a 2.5 percent bump, Governor Maura Healey vetoed $400,000 from the appropriation. The Legislature overrode the veto last October. Given the severity of the cut DCR is facing for FY2027, we hope the Administration sees fit to approve whatever the Legislature sends its way in this budget.   

While we are grateful to the Senate for adding funding for operations, these cuts if approved will go into effect on July 1, just as summer kicks into high gear. Mass Parks for All (MPA) sees these budget cuts, the first for DCR in three years, as greatly hindering the agency’s ability to deliver well-staffed, clean, safe parks, beaches, campgrounds, and other assets that receive heavy summer use. While it’s considerably less than we wanted, we will nevertheless be asking the Conference Committee to support the Senate’s number for operations.  

Looking at the big picture, we can’t help but be disappointed that state government has once again resorted to the one step forward, two steps backward budgets that plagued DCR for more than a decade during and after the 2008 recession, when the agency lost about a third of its budget and a like amount of staff. DCR received three years of reasonable budget increases for fiscal years 23 through 26 and has been implementing many of the reforms outlined in 2021’s Special Legislative Commission report. 

Even so, at just more than 1,050 full-time positions, DCR still has fewer employees than it had in 2007, when it had about 1,100 full-time slots. So come July 1, despite having increased acreage and responsibilities, DCR will have fewer people to take on those tasks than it had two decades ago.

If there is a bright light for the future, it’s that both general revenue tax receipts and the Mass Fair Share millionaires’ tax are bringing in more funds than projected. While Fair Share money can only be used for education and transportation operating and capital expenses, other tax receipts can be used as needed to shore up other agency budgets.

In April alone, the state took in $7.4 billion in taxes, about a billion dollars more than expected. That’s completely separate from the $8.2 billion Stabilization (Rainy Day) Fund we have for emergencies. Tax revenues in general have exceeded projections for the first four months of the calendar year. If they continue to do so, we urge the Administration to seek a supplemental budget appropriation from the Legislature to soften the blow DCR is likely to get hit with this summer. 

After healthcare and education spending, which arguably have the greatest overall effect on our quality of life, MPA would argue that our state parks have the next largest impact on that quality of life. DCR is the largest land holder in the state with nearly 500,000 acres under management. This includes more than 150 parks, forests, fresh and salt water beaches, and campgrounds, as well as pools, spraydecks, playgrounds, trails, and other assets. 

Our state parks receive 26.2 million visitors a year (Pg. 5) and contribute considerably to our $13 billion annual outdoor recreation economy, the fastest growing in the nation. So there is an economic incentive to fund them adequately as well. Sadly, this proposed budget does not do that. 

At a time when many everyday staples we rely on are getting prohibitively expensive due to circumstances beyond our control, DCR properties are still affordable to the millions of people who use them. By and large, the majority of park visitors do not have a summer house on the Cape or jet off to ski in Aspen at Christmas. They are average residents looking for recreation opportunities that do not cost an arm and a leg, yet greatly improve their physical and mental wellbeing. 

State budget writers are rightly concerned about the ongoing withdrawal of federal funding to Massachusetts and the possibility that a ballot question in November will cut the state income tax, removing billions of dollars from state coffers.

This is why we abandoned our initial request for the same inflation-beating 3.5 percent increase for DCR we successfully asked for last year. Instead, we sought to fund the operations and seasonal accounts at this year’s level, which, given inflation, is still about a three percent cut. 

We hope as the state’s fiscal picture comes into sharper focus, the Administration and the Legislature, about to approve a budget of some $64 billion, a four percent increase, can find the $9.0 million - 0.014 percent of the total budget - it would take to do this. 

Focus on the Friends Event

MPA held the first of what we hope will be many Focus on the Friends events on May 16 at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, which sits on land leased from DCR’s Wachusett Mountain State Reservation. 

Friends from as far away as the Berkshires and the Cape joined us for an informative session on how DCR and MPA supports park friends groups and other park stakeholders.

DCR Field Operations Team Leader Denise Morrissey and Visitor Services Supervisor Nick Wisniewski gave an overview of the park’s geographical, ecological, and cultural assets.  

DCR Director of Partnerships Paul Fahey, who is often the first point of contact for park friends, and Deputy Commissioner Kendra Amaral talked about how DCR interacts with friend groups around the state. 

DCR Stewardship Council Vice Chair Susan Smiley, who represents Central Massachusetts on the council, talked about how the council serves as a board of directors for the agency. She also talked about the council’s role as a resource for groups and citizens who have park related issues, or just want to inform the public about their presence in our parks. 

Trust for Public Land Mass State Program Director Jodi Valenta, who is also on the Nature for Massachusetts Coalition steering committee, talked about the bill before the Legislature and the Protect Water and Nature ballot question voters may see in November if lawmakers do not act on the bill this session. MPA is a coalition member.

Both measures would divert the existing state sales tax on various sporting goods to a land and water conservation fund. Current estimates say it could be about $100 million per year for those purposes. 

The two-hour event also featured an informative, lively question and answer session.

We want to thank our sponsors who helped us put this event together by donating space, refreshments, or funds. They are the Lawrence & Lillian Solomon Foundation, Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, Public Lands By Dicks Sporting Goods, Red Apple Farm, and Mountainside Cafe. 

The cafe, where several event attendees joined us for lunch before the meeting, is a great example of DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program. Situated in the former park superintendent’s home, the cafe is a thriving business now leasing a restored building that had been abandoned for many years. 

We’re thankful for those who made the journey to what we hope will be an ongoing MPA program.  

Doug Pizzi is the Executive Director of Mass Parks for All.