Will N.Y. forfeit federal wildlife funds?

[ERABBIT]

From the Binghamton paper

Will N.Y. forfeit federal wildlife funds?

The New York Legisla¬ture’s 2012 session is scheduled to close today, and as of Wednesday the state was still not in com¬pliance with federal guidelines required for the distribution of funds to state fish and wildlife programs.

We’re talking nearly half of the wildlife budget of the state, in excess of $20 million, because of a budget clause that allows the state to raid any spe¬cial or dedicated fund for its own purposes. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will not send the funds to any state that doesn’t pro¬tect its dedicated conser¬vation funds from such moves.

This spring it appeared that this was all ironed out. The new budget bill passed in April contained language that USFWS agreed would put us in compliance and thus eligi¬ble for the federal funds.

But a new Section, 13-a, was later added that al¬lows the governor's Direc¬tor of Budget and the Comptroller to remove funds from any special fund, including the Con¬servation Fund. That put us back in jeopardy.

S.7342, which would fix this problem and again put us in compliance with the federal demands, was unanimously passed in the Senate on June 12, 59-0.

But the companion bill, A.10469, was stuck in the As¬sembly Environmental Con¬servation Committee and chairman Robert Sweeney has sat on it for a week.

It would seem that this would be passed without comment, and probably will be. But strange things are happening in Albany these days.

[Jolly II]

Add to that, there is a 40 million dollar surplus in the conservation fund that was created by our license fee increases several years back. I'm sure we all remember that. So the extra money is just sitting around, doing nothing, while we have laid off DEC personal, and made cuts to fish and wildlife projects.

I've been following it as mush as possible in the New York Outdoor News Report.

Then I read an article in the same periodical about needed funds for hatchery upgrades, improvements, and repairs. Really????!!!! That's a real burn.