Funding for Agencies

The state agencies that protect Maryland’s environment and enforce our environmental laws have already been cut significantly over the last few years. These agencies are: Maryland Department of Environment, Department Natural Resources, Maryland Department of Planning and Maryland Department of Agriculture. Year after year these cuts have cost jobs and made it more and more difficult to stop polluters, keep our air and water clean, and protect the health of all Marylanders. Just last year these agencies suffered once again when the General Assembly cut their budgets three times more than average reductions made to other state agencies. The disproportionate cuts made to environmental agencies are unfair and dangerous. They have cost many jobs and pushed these important agencies to the breaking point. Further cuts put at risk their ability to enforce the law and protect our health. To protect our air and water and the health of every Marylander, we must stop the cutting of more jobs and the dismantling of our state environment agencies.   $1 billion industry needs agency support When Scott McGuire goes fishing, he depends on skill, a little luck, and the indirect help of Maryland’s Natural Resources Police (NRP). If the state continues to cut the numbers of the police unit, McGuire’s fishing experience, and a $1 billion recreational fishing industry could be jeopardized, he says. Among other functions, the police ensure that fishermen, watermen and others comply with state regulations for legal fishing. That work protects the larger fishery, and thus the industry. For instance, the police are tasked with stopping anyone poaching oysters from sanctuary areas where no harvest is permitted. Those oyster beds attract large numbers of fish, which in turn attract fishermen. Yet such poaching is widespread. McGuire, government relations committee chairman for the Coastal Conservation Association, notes that numbers of enforcements officers were cut in half between 1990 and 2008, from 451 to 259, according to the Maryland Fisheries Task Force. "While Maryland, as other states, is facing difficult fiscal times, funding cuts for the Natural Resources Police is a short-sighted solution for budget cutting," said Andy Hughes, chairman of Coastal Conservation Association Maryland in a 2008 press release. The NRP is only one of many programs in state agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of the Environment, and Department of Planning, and the Department of Agriculture where legislators are looking for cuts this year. Those agencies’ programs have been harder hit than other agencies in recent years, all the while trying to serve vital functions that protect the Chesapeake Bay, the environment in general, and the massive industries that depend on the health of those natural areas.