Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf recently signed into law a package of Commonwealth budget bills for the 2019- 2020 fiscal year. These bills are reflective of a Governor and legislative leaders who do not prioritize environmental protection.

DEP Staffing

Most importantly, the budget failed to address the chronic understaffing of the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection- the state agency charged with enforcing environmental laws. The DEP has suffered almost a 30 percent reduction in staff since 2002, losing over 900 positions.

This understaffing has compromised its ability to reduce air and water pollution, regulate oil and gas development, combat climate change, plug abandoned oil and gas wells and protect the Chesapeake Bay.

Environmental fund transfers

Consistent with Governor Wolf’s budget proposal in February, money was taken from three important environmental funds to pay for general governmental operations in the upcoming fiscal year.

Over sixteen million dollars was taken from the Environmental Stewardship Fund- commonly known as growing greener. This fund provides monies for farmland preservation, open space protection, abandoned mine reclamation, watershed protection and restoration, water and sewer infrastructure and community parks and recreational facilities.

Ten million dollars was taken from the recycling fund which supports municipal recycling programs by helping to pay for recycling trucks, processing equipment, staff salaries, composting programs and consumer education.

Almost seventy million dollars was taken from the Oil and Gas Lease fund which was created to finance conservation, recreation, dams and flood control projects. A 2017 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision prohibits using revenue from this fund for any purpose other than conservation. This budget transfer appears blatantly unconstitutional.

None of the above three programs comes anywhere near meeting current demand.

To make matters worse, authority was given to the Pennsylvania legislature to take monies from the Environmental Stewardship Fund and Recycling Fund on a continuing basis and was not limited to just this fiscal year.

Delaware River Basin Commission

This budget failed to provide Pennsylvania’s fair share of funding for the Delaware River Basin Commission. DRBC is an interstate agency charged with, among other things, making sure there is enough clean drinking water for more than 15 million people. The Commonwealth fair share contribution is $893,000 this year, according to the DRBC. The budget provided only $217,000. Republican legislators have blocked full funding of the DRBC since the Corbett administration in retaliation for the Commission’s refusal to allow fracking in the Delaware River Basin.

Plastics

A last-minute provision added by Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) prohibits the Commonwealth and its local governments from regulating plastic bags for one year (just enough time to block it again in next year’s budget). Senator Corman’s district includes a plastic bag manufacturing plant owned by Novolex, the world’s largest manufacturer of single-use plastic bags. Governor Wolf vetoed a similar provision in 2017 calling it a violation of the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pa constitution. There was no veto this time.

RGGI

There was some hope that this budget might include legislative authorization for Pennsylvania to jointhe Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI is a 10 state cap- and- trade program designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the electric power sector. Pennsylvania is a major greenhouse gas emitter and joining RGGI would be perhaps the most important thing the Commonwealth could do to curb its emissions. The final budget contained no RGGI language.

Conclusion

Environmental protection fared very poorly in this budget but it was not due to tight fiscal times. In fact, Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office recently projected an $866 million budget surplus for the fiscal year that just ended. Moreover this budget will deposit almost $300 million into Pennsylvania’s rainy day fund.

Most of these damaging environmental provisions were demanded by Republican budget negotiators and, in the end, Gov. Wolf was not willing to fight hard enough to keep them from happening. For too long environmental protection has been the bargaining chip Democrats in Pennsylvania have traded to get other things.

READ MORE: How Pennsylvania’s failing water system is hurting you

It’s easy to pay lip service to environmental protection but the critical environmental problems facing our commonwealth won’t be addressed in any meaningful way until more people are elected on both sides of the aisle that are truly committed to environmental protection.

State Representative Greg Vitali (D., Delaware, Montgomery) represents the 166th Legislative District. E-mail: gvitali@pahouse.net