Saw this on FFSW - Romeny Restores Inland Game Fund

[JohnR]

It's a start

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes...restores11.htm

Romney restores fisheries funds
Future of Sandwich hatchery still uncertain.

By DOUG FRASER
STAFF WRITER
It took the threat of losing nearly $4.7 million in federal funding, but Gov. Mitt Romney responded this week by filing legislation to restore the inland fish and game fund to the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

The estimated $10.7 million in the fund is the main source of money for the department, whose governing board recently voted to close two fish hatcheries, including one in Sandwich, because of a reduced budget.

"We're very happy the commonwealth is trying to resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible," said Bob Souza, federal aid chief for the Northeast region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Souza's agency had given the state until Oct. 26 to initiate steps to restore the inland fund or lose the federal matching money.

While a step in the right direction, restoration of the state account doesn't guarantee that hatcheries in Sandwich and Montague remain open. That will require a supplemental budget passed by the Legislature that allows the division to spend the money.

During a telephone press conference yesterday, Ellen Roy Herzfelder, state secretary of environmental affairs, said Romney realized in April, after he'd recommended the Inland fund be dissolved and the money put in the state's general fund, that it would jeopardize the federal aid. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires that money collected from hunting and fishing licenses and fees be spent on fish and wildlife programs to qualify for federal matching funds.

Souza wrote to the state Sept. 26 that his agency had rejected a plan to certify that the license and fee money, while in the state's general fund, would still only be used for fish and wildlife.

The state was trying to deal with hundreds of other "dedicated" funds set aside for specific purposes within each state agency. Legislators claimed that, collectively, these funds ran as much as $18 million to $20 million in the red and were hard to police.

That was not the case with the inland fund or the fisheries and wildlife division.

"The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife was created in 1945 by very wise sportsmen. Since that time, the division has never run in the red. No other state agency can make that claim," said George Darey, chairman of the Fisheries and Wildlife board.

Darey said he was angry at how an efficiently run agency like Fisheries and Wildlife was being treated by the new administration and the Legislature. He said the inland fund was created to keep the department running even when budget cuts threaten other agencies. Ironically, the Legislature in recent years has not approved enough spending from the fund to counter budget cuts that have reduced the payroll by 25 percent.

Darey said budget cuts of 10 percent this year required early retirements to again reduce the payroll. That, in turn, dramatically cut staffing, with only one person left to run the Sandwich hatchery.

"The hatcheries were the jewels in the crown of the division," he said. "To do this (vote to close) was a very sad day for the board when we knew we didn't have to."

Darey said a state hiring freeze stood in the way of hiring any new personnel. Approximately $350,000 would also have to be approved to keep the hatcheries open.

Another program jeopardized by dissolving the inland fund was reimbursement for pump-out boats and facilities for fuel and upkeep. These boats and dockside pumpers drain the bathrooms on boats and allow towns to declare a harbor a no-discharge zone for sewage.