Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - March/April 2013 - 3

Fish and Boat Fund Revenues and Expenditures

Combined Funds
Salary
Wage
Overtime
Benefits Other
Health Benefits
Retirement
Total Personnel

FY 2012-13

Year-over-Period Change

25.41%

$8,508,793.42
Retirement
Health Benefits
Benefits Other
Overtime
Wage
Salary

Figure 4

included in the Marcellus shale impact fee legislation where
we receive $1 million per year of alternative funding for the
permit review services that we provide.
Based upon our forecasting of costs and revenues, we now
know that we need to reallocate over $9 million of our revenue
over the next four years and every year thereafter to meet
$6.7 million in health care and retirement obligations for our
employees and to fund $2.3 million in infrastructure needs.
I could have decided, much like the federal government did,
to kick that same can down the road, spend down our reserve
fund and delay this decision for others to make sometime after
I retire to the back pages of this magazine. I cannot knowingly
do that given my concern about the long-term future of
our agency. Therefore, staff and I worked on a spending
reallocation plan to determine what programs needed to be cut
to make up the $9 million we need to honor our obligations
and to pay new bills that will come due in 2016.
The program cuts were explained to our Board of
Commissioners at our January Commission meeting and
included the closure of two of our trout hatcheries (Bellefonte
State Fish Hatchery in Centre County and Oswayo State
Fish Hatchery in Potter County), which involves jobs for 18
employees and a loss of 750,000 catchable trout. Additionally,
we made the decision not to run a new Waterways
Conservation Officer (WCO) class, since we can’t afford to fill
vacant WCO positions. These cuts amount to about $3 million
of the $9 million total that we need to find. Figure 5 presents
an overview of the total impact that these cuts will have to all
program operations.
We needed to act now to begin the transition of closure for
the hatchery facilities by the end of 2014. All other program
cuts will need to be made before July of 2016. The goal is to
make these changes without furloughing any employees since

FY 2016-17

$19,262,923.77 $21,055,980.64
$1,929,359.24
$2,108,950.40
$744,811.00
$814,140.48
$5,343,597.80
$5,840,997.61
$4,514,400.51
$4,934,615.90
$1,689,598.94
$7,238,799.64
$33,484,691.26 $41,993,484.67

Figure 5
Engineering,
731,824.00, 8.21%

Executive Office,
79,075.42, 0.89%

Law Enforcement,
2,045,385.34,
22.95%

we will attempt to
Hatcheries,
absorb these cuts
Deputy for Admin,
2,503,465.00
422,980.00, 4.75%
through attrition
28.09%
and place affected
employees in other
positions. I know that
those of you reading
this article are strong
Information
supporters of the
Technology,
PFBC’s mission, our
676,000.00,
7.58%
staff and programs.
Fisheries,
If you are concerned
Administration,
1,689,132.00
289,575.00, 3.25%
about these program
18.95%
Boating & Outreach,
Deputy for Field Ops,
cuts, you need to
476,118.00, 5.34%
-, 0.00%
speak out to our
state legislators and anyone else who will listen. We did not have
input into the decisions that caused these fiscal problems, but we
still have a chance to influence how future decisions are made.
There are only two ways to address this fiscal slope—one is to cut
spending and the other is to raise revenue. I will address the latter
in my next “Straight Talk” article in a couple of months.
See you on the water.

Your Director,
><(John{(°>

The mission of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission is
to protect, conserve and enhance the Commonwealth’s aquatic
resources and provide fishing and boating opportunities.
PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com

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