Environment funds feel pinch of state budget cuts

Indiana is dipping into a wide range of state funds, including several devoted to improving or protecting the environment
and natural resources, as part of its latest steps to offset a steep drop in state revenues.

Twenty-three dedicated
funds are on an initial list that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration expects to tap to combat the revenue shortfall—and
a quarter of those have missions related to the state’s environment or natural resources.

Those include funds that
promote recycling, help remove invasive aquatic plants clogging some of the state’s lakes and support efforts to redevelop
old industrial sites.

Hoosier Environmental Council executive director Jesse Kharbanda said it’s understandable
that state funds have to make sacrifices during a budget crisis. Tax collections continue to fall millions short of estimates,
and Daniels has said the surplus that stood at $1.3 billion in July would be wiped out by next August if the trend continues.

But Kharbanda questions whether funds intended to help the environment or the state’s natural assets are "getting
the short end of the stick in terms of being raided."

"One wonders how much of it is a reflection of
the lack of clout of the stakeholders of these different funds and how much of it is merit?" Kharbanda said.

State Budget Director Chris Ruhl said environmental groups aren’t being targeted and that the Indiana Department of Environmental
Management maintains more such funds than most other agencies.

"Its target list is larger than other agencies,
and frankly, IDEM has a lot of funds where there’s excess or surplus monies," he said.

Ruhl said the budget
agency has analyzed many of Indiana’s more than 100 dedicated funds, focusing on those with balances of $500,000 or more.
The state then assessed how much was obligated and how much money was drawn from each fund on an ongoing basis.

Other
funds on the list include an Indiana State Police fund that aids DNA collection and analysis and a court fee-financed fund
that supports alcohol- and drug-prevention efforts.

Ruhl said budget officials expect to tap about 30 dedicated
funds and that together they should provide hundreds of millions of dollars.

In June, the state shifted $11 million
from a fund that finances loan and grant programs to attract recycling businesses to Indiana to the state’s main checking
account to help offset last fiscal year’s revenue shortfall.

That fund, sustained by state fees trash haulers pay
at landfills, is going to take another hit to its balance, which currently stands at $6.5 million. Ruhl said he questions
how successful the recycling fund and other funds on the state’s list have been at delivering their intended results.

Jeff Miller, a member of the Recycling Market Development Board that oversees the grant and loan programs, said the panel
is pursuing a cost-benefit analysis to quantify the jobs and environmental benefits of the recycling businesses the program
brings to Indiana.

"Many of us board members see our program as differing from other funds, in so far as our
program creates jobs," he said. "Job creation is of such great importance."

While the state is preparing
to siphon away millions of dollars from dedicated funds, it’s also scouring its agencies for far smaller amounts to tap.

The state Department of Natural Resources opted not to renew the $75,000 contract for the executive director of a
panel that promotes the cultural and natural heritage of the Wabash River, Indiana’s official river. The agency cited the
revenue shortfall and Daniels’ order that state agencies cut their budgets by 10 percent.

John Gettinger, chairman
of the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission, said the DNR’s action leaves the panel without an executive director for
the first time since 2002 and will threaten its efforts to promote recreational and cultural activities along the 470-mile
river.

"We feel that we have a right to manage our own budget, that it was a power that the Legislature gave
us," he said. "We ran our own show up until this situation developed."

DNR spokesman Phil Bloom
said the contract isn’t the only one the agency may cancel as it works to meet the governor’s directive. He said all funds,
accounts, grants and contracts are under review.

"We are taking a look at all contracts and putting on hold
those that aren’t mission critical or duplicative in how they function and this is one of them," Bloom said.

John Goss, a former DNR director who now serves as executive director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, hopes the state
doesn’t deplete a fund that helps control invasive aquatic weeds and prevent sediment buildups on Indiana lakes and rivers.

Goss said the fund, which is supported by a fee on boat trailer licenses, has improved water quality, fish habitat
and navigation on dozens of Indiana lakes over the last decade.

"If they’re going to wipe it out, that would
be a setback for all these weed control and sediment control programs. They’ve been a big success," Goss said.