The Maryland Senate approved a budget on April 1 that slashes the state’s land preservation programs.

An amendment to the budget will transfer $25 million annually for the next four years from land preservation programs to the General Fund.

With the state facing a deficit, the Department of Legislative Services had recommended transferring all of the money from the programs, which are funded by a 0.5% tax on real estate transactions.

The programs affected include the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, Rural Legacy and Program Open Space.

The cut would drop the ag land program’s funding from $21.6 million to $6.6 million for next year.

Though the cuts are partial, they could markedly reduce each program’s ability to preserve farms and natural areas.

“Land will still be preserved in this state, but this is a gut punch,” said Kristin Kirkwood, the executive director of Harford Land Trust.

Sen. Jason Gallion, R-Harford, who is a member of the Joint Subcommittee on Program Open Space and Agricultural Land Preservation, opposed the cuts in a floor speech.

“My argument was there shouldn’t be any money taken out of a dedicated funding source, and we have preservation goals to meet that are important,” Gallion said. “We just should not be raiding that dedicated funding for these programs.”

The Maryland the Beautiful Act, enacted in 2023, established a goal to preserve 30% of the state’s land by 2030 and 40% by 2040, including farmland.

Approximately 2.5 million acres still needs to be preserved to meet the 40% goal by 2040, and the $25 million annual cut will make that difficult to achieve, Gallion said.

Kirkwood said the preservation programs already had waiting lists of landowners wanting to preserve their properties.

And the Ag Land Preservation Foundation, known as MALPF, may only accept applications every other year when budgets are tight.

“MALPF at a minimum needs $12 million to keep the wheels turning in a fiscal year,” she said. “It’s too early to tell what this will mean for some of these programs and how we will keep the momentum going.”

Maryland Farm Bureau issued an action alert to its members ahead of the budget vote, resulting in more than 650 messages being sent to lawmakers.

After the cuts were approved, Farm Bureau said it was pleased the Legislature partially restored the funding, and said elected officials must continue to make farmers a priority.

The budget now goes to a conference committee where the House and Senate will agree on a final version to send to Gov. Wes Moore.

Since the House has already approved the $25 million cut to land preservation programs, Gallion isn’t optimistic the cuts will be reversed, even in future budgets.

“You can always change it when the budget comes up again, but it’s a tougher battle to get this changed now,” he said.

Kirkwood said the outcome isn’t as bad as cutting all funding, as was initially recommended, and she understands the Legislature has a duty to balance the budget.

She’d like the conference committee to consider taking out less than $25 million in years when, as is expected for the new fiscal year, the transfer tax falls short of projections.

Source - https://www.lancasterfarming.com