Photo: ©albradenphoto.com
By Nikki Whitehead
In the Texas Legislature, the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Appropriations are the two committees that are responsible for passing the state’s biennial budget. Comprised of 15 and 27 members respectively, these committees held their one and only required public hearing last week on Article VI, the section of the budget that includes Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), and the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife (TPWD). This is a critical moment for the health of beneficial programs within these agencies. Let’s take a closer look at Parks & Wildlife.
Evelyn Merz, Conservation Chair of the Lone Star Chapter, spoke at the House Appropriations Committee hearing on the proposed budget for TPWD. The proposed budget allocated $575 million to the TPWD. Merz urged the committee to raise its budget to $580.6 million and allocate more money to underfunded efforts.
In particular, Merz focused on the need for increased funding for improvements and major repairs (Strategy D.1.1, page 148). This section allows TPWD to maintain public property in a responsible manner. The TPWD requires extra funds for major projects such as repairing the steadily deteriorating Battleship Texas ($25 million) and to develop Palo Pinto State Park ($2.7 million).
Another area in need of extra funds is inland fisheries management (Strategy A.2.1, page 147). This section manages habitat conservation and controls invasive aquatic species that have become a problem in many Texas waterways. The control of aquatic invasive species requires immediate and sustained action. Aquatic invasives reproduce rapidly and are easily transported. They negatively impact the ecology of lakes and streams and cause economic harm. At this point, TPWD’s exceptional item for $18 million to control invasive species has not been included in HB 1 (the budget bill).
Another issue addressed in the hearing was the sporting goods sales tax. TPWD receives a significant amount of funds from this tax, which was first used to fund parks in 1993 and has been steadily rising. Currently, 94% of this sales tax goes to TPWD. In the hearing, Merz asked committee members to work towards appropriating 100% of the tax to state parks and the Texas Historical Commission.
In its initial budget request, TPWD did not request extra funds for land acquisition. The Sierra Club believes that the state parks program would greatly benefit from a minimal acquisitions budget to allow the TPWD to take advantage of opportunities and expand existing state parks when opportunities arise. This is the most cost-efficient method of adding public land, according to Merz. Existing parks already have infrastructure and personnel in place, so there is only the marginal expense of increasing to the expanded parks’ needs.
The next step in the budget process is markup, a process in which the budget bill will be debated and amended. Merz and Lone Star Chapter Conservation Director Cyrus Reed will be following the process, so stay tuned for more updates.
Finally, if you haven’t already done so, please email your state representative and senator and urge them to support full funding of these critical programs in our state budget. Click here to take action!