The Maryland land conservation programs could face a serious shortfall as the state struggles with its structural budget deficit. In our weekly series with the Bay Journal Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with reporter Jeremy Cox about the implications.
RUSH: Maryland's land conservation programs are struggling with the looming state budget deficit. This is Don Rush. Governor Wes Moore has set aside $86 million this year, which is double last year's allocation, but as far short from the $200 million those programs got in 2023 and 2024. In our weekly series of Bay Journal, we talk with reporter Jeremy Cox about the impact of the shortfall.
COX: So this year, the land conservation programs were already down $25 million. That was before they dabbled in the session in Annapolis, and that's because last year, in order to balance the budget, the legislature took a hundred million away from those programs. So $25 million last year and then $25 million for each of the next three years. And this continues a trend of legislators dipping into these funds that are used to acquire open space and protect farmland across the state year after year.
RUSH: So what is the prospect then, in terms of the impact that these kind of cuts then have?
COX: So this impacts anything under that program, open space umbrella on the state side. So state parking expanded well as rural legacy. So those are designated areas around the state where the state seeks to set aside space for farms and to combat urban sprawl, and then also Maryland agricultural preservation. So keeping farmland in agriculture as opposed to being subdivided into homes and sold off to the highest bidder. So what advocates are telling me is if that money's not there when the sellers need it, then they're going to go to whoever has that money available and it's probably not going to be preserved as a result.
RUSH: So now this money actually comes from the transfer tax. Tell me then a little bit about how that works in terms of real estate transactions.
COX: Right. This is a dedicated funding source, and that's always key in any kind of legislature. You have a dedicated funding source, then you should be good to go with your funding from year to year. But that hasn't been the case for a long time with these land programs. So the transfer tax is on any kind of real estate transaction... 0.5% of the total goes toward these land programs. But the legislature in the lean times kind of uses this as a slush fund. So to cover other priorities, they dip into this and from time to time they promise to pay it back. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
RUSH: I understand that there might be some help coming from the Republican side of the aisle. What's the story with that in Annapolis?
COX: This is Republicans telling Democrats to be better conservationists. That's because in these rural counties, farmers and other large landowners, wood lots and that sort of thing, they have come to depend on these programs. So these are affecting Republican sides of the state as much, if not more as the blue areas. So they are sponsoring a bill that would require the remaining 75 million out of that a hundred million dollars that was taken out last year to be put back in this year and in subsequent years.
RUSH: If we're looking at structural deficits, particularly for the state in the coming years, we also see pressure from Washington in terms of their cuts as well.
RUSH: No, you make a good point there. This year's budget deficit is looking like $1.5 billion coming to Maryland. A lot of that has to do with cutbacks in the federal government enacted from the Trump administration that disproportionately impact the state and its revenues.
RUSH: Bay Journal reporter Jeremy Cox on the financial struggle of Maryland's land conservation programs. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
