A proposed amendment to a state fiscal bill, House Bill 1300, which would transfer $150 million in revenues from the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s (PGC) Game Fund to the state’s Clean Streams Fund, has resulted in outcries from conservation and sporting groups, including PEC and seventeen fellow members of the Growing Greener Coalition.
The proposal threatens the funding of wildlife management in the Commonwealth. It could also force the state to forfeit its allocation of Pittman-Robertson (PR) funding, a federal program that supports wildlife and habitat conservation. Earlier this month, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers PR funding, wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans, warning of that possibility.
“License revenue must be controlled by [the PGC] and used only for the administration of the PGC,” wrote Colleen Sculley, assistant regional director of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. “If PGC loses control of license revenue or license revenue is used for purposes other than the administration of the PGC, the Service may declare your agency to be in diversion and ineligible to receive PR-Wildlife Restoration Program funding.”
In 2023 Pennsylvania received more than $41.1 million in funding from this program, meaning the proposal would remove nearly $200 million from the PGC’s budget. The state ranks third last year among the 50 states in the amount of money received each year, largely to the popularity of hunting.
The Pittman-Robertson Act was passed in 1937 in response to a marked decline in certain game populations. It’s intended to promote the preservation and restoration of wildlife habitats across the country.
In an article published earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) said it was disappointed in the hastily made proposal. They added that this sets a dangerous precedent for future legislative sessions and violates the trust of Pennsylvania hunters who pay into the Game Fund through license fees and an excise tax on hunting and shooting supplies.
“If future legislators follow suit and conduct further raids on the fund, it will result in immense damage to the Commission’s ability to carry out its mission,” the BHA said.
Dennis Fillmore, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationists, the state’s largest and oldest statewide grassroots sportsmen’s organization, wrote a letter to state representatives urging them to reject the amendment.
“While we can all agree that the Clean Streams Fund is an important and worthy cause, we don’t believe the costs should be funded exclusively by hunters and trappers,” Fillmore wrote, adding that his organization is concerned the transfer will jeopardize federal Pittman-Robertson funding for the state.
The Clean Streams Fund was created last year with $220 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act with the aim of restoring and protecting rivers and streams, especially in the Chesapeake Bay. It funds conservation efforts, such as the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program, which supports water quality improvement on farms.