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Legislative Update - February 2007Senate Agriculture Committee Holds Hearings The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold an agricultural listening session at the Four Season's Produce facility in Ephrata, Lancaster County on Friday, March 16, 2007. The session will be held from 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon. Please consider attending this important event. If you are interested in attending, call 717-738-1600 indicating you'll attend and whether or not you would like to speak. The Committee is asking each participant to summarize their comments in a few moments time; additional materials may be submitted to the committee for consideration. Directions: Take the turnpike to exit #286, the Reading Interchange Additional sessions have been scheduled as follows: April 4, 2007: North East PA Governor Presents Annual Budget Proposal Governor Ed Rendell presented his budget address on Tuesday, February 6, 2007. It seems the big winners this year are public healthcare reform and education. Over the next few months we definitely have our work cut out for us. Within the PDA budget, the Governor proposes to cut the Local Soil and Water District Assistance line item $590,000 from $1.8 million to $1.21 million. If you remember, for the last two years the Governor proposed $1.21 million and the legislature increased our funding. We will again be working with the legislature to restore and increase this line. The transfer to the Nutrient Management Fund remained the same as previous years at $3.28 million. We anticipate that $5 million will have to be appropriated to sustain the program because carry-over funds from past years are depleted. On the DEP side, the Local Soil and Water District Assistance line item was cut $500,000 from last year to $3.1 million. Again, this is the same scenario as the funding levels in the PDA budget. The Governor proposed $3.1 million and the General Assembly increased the funding level to $3.6 million. Last year and we were able to get the funds restored through the General Assembly. The entire budget can be viewed on the web at www.budget.state.pa.us and click on Governor's 2007-08 Executive Budget. House and Senate Committee Members Announced and
Legislation of Interest to PACD Members Introduced Members of the Senate Environmental Affairs and Resources Committee are as follows:
Senator Mary Jo White, Majority Chair, Butler County Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee
Senator Mike Brubaker, Majority Chair, Lancaster County Members of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee
Rep. C. Bud George, Majority Chair, Clearfield County House Agriculture Committee
Rep. Arthur Hershey, Chair, Chester County Legislation of Interest to PACD Members Introduced HB 13, introduced by Representative Harry Readshaw (D-Allegheny) – referred to House Game and Fisheries Committee. This legislation seeks to limit liability for land and water areas available to the public for a "recreational user" defined as any person who enters or uses land for a recreational purpose.
HB 74, introduced by Representative Julie Harhart (R-Lehigh) – referred to House Game and Fisheries Committee. This legislation is similar to HB 13.
HB 43, introduced by Representative Carole Rubley (R-Chester) – referred to House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. The legislation provides for uniform environmental covenants and states that an environmental covenant must: (1) state that the instrument is an environmental covenant, (2) contain a legally sufficient description of the real property subject to the environmental covenant, (3) contain a brief narrative description of the contamination and the remedy, (4) describe the activity and use limitations on the real property, (5) identify every holder, (6) be signed, with the formalities required for a deed, and identify the name and location of any administrative record for the environmental response project reflected in the environmental covenant. The bill states DEP would establish and maintain a registry containing all environmental covenants and any amendment or termination of those covenants. The registry may also contain any other information concerning environmental covenants and the real property subject to them which it considers appropriate. The registry is a public record for purposes of the Right-to-Know Law.
SB 356, introduced by Senator Mary Jo White (R-Butler) – will soon be referred to Senate Environmental Resources and Energy. This legislation establishes the PA Center for Environmental Education and the PA Center for Environmental Education board. It is similar to SB 410 from last session. The legislation does not specifically name PACD on the Board, but lists conservation groups as one of the categories that a board member may be chosen from. |
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