Cash reserves bother critics

Fish and Boat director defends policy

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Last week the state Fish and Boat Commission dipped into a rainy day fund to pay for a $12 million double-dam replacement at Tamarack Lake, Crawford County, and used $450,000 for the replacement of engineering equipment and emergencies at fish hatcheries.

Executive director John Arway said when the expenses arose on short notice he didn’t negotiate with the legislature, request assistance from the governor or apply for a bank loan. He simply authorized a withdrawal. In effect, Fish and Boat gave itself a no-interest loan from one account to another using money it raised through the sale of fishing and boating licenses.

Arway wants to know what’s wrong with that.

“Do you realize how long it would take if we needed that money in the middle of a budget discussion [with legislators]?” he said. “The wildlife agencies were set up so they could do that, to separate their needs from budget fights.”

During a meeting last week of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, Arway defended the longstanding agency policy of maintaining contingency reserves for exactly those kinds of unexpected problems. Among the biggest sticking points in the ongoing Fish and Boat funding debate is the existence of accounts that some legislators see as extra money. They want to know why a $52 million agency with fluctuating cash reserves of $45 million to $60 million needs to increase license fees.

According to Fish and Boat data, combined assets total a little more than $100 million. Of that a short-term operating fund of about $8.5 million covers routine cash flow including payroll, fuel, utilities and other expenses. About $42.8 million is “committed,” that is, earmarked for upcoming contractual obligations or already accounted for but not yet paid out.

Currently, Fish and Boat has about $49.7 million on hand in excess of operating needs and budget commitments. Like companies that routinely take out shortterm loans to make payroll, he said, Fish and Boat draws from the fund while waiting for license sales to begin nine months into its fiscal year. Arway said this “uncommitted” reserve was tapped last week to pay for the emergency expenses and THIS WEEK: With five-year regularity, the state auditor general’s office should review the finances of the Fish and Boat and Game commissions. • Yes • No • LAST WEEK: I have taken advantage of programs that permit preseason trout fishing. Tamarack dams.

“That is how our system works with an annual budget of $54 million a year,” diminishing license sales and no license-fee increase since 2005, he said. “We have survived so far by being fiscally responsible, not spending more than we earn and going from 432 staff to 366.”

Last week the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that Fish and Boat will get an apportionment of $8.5 million through the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Program. The reapportionment formula includes the number of state fishing and boating licenses sold. Fish and Boat’s innovative addition of voluntary youth fishing licenses and vintage license buttons increased Pennsylvania’s apportionment.

“None of that will go into the reserves,” said Arway. “It goes right into operational expenses.”

Some state legislators are pushing for an audit of the Fish and Boat Commission. The full House is expected to vote April 9 on Senate Bill 935, which is intended to term-limit Arway out of office.

Game Commission funding

The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Program, the land-and-air counterpart of Dingell-Johnson, will reapportion $28 million to the state Game Commission. At last week’s House Game and Fisheries Committee meeting, legislators told executive director Byran Burhans they would wait for results of Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s review of the $100 million agency, including its $55 million cash reserve, before considering a license fee increase.