AB 315

This bill reauthorizes the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship 2000 Program until 2030, makes changes to the land acquisition and property development and local assistance subprograms, and creates a separate major land acquisitions program.

Reauthorization and changes to the stewardship program

Current law authorizes the state to incur public debt for certain conservation activities under the stewardship program, which is administered by the Department of Natural Resources. The state may incur this debt to acquire land for the state for conservation purposes and for property development activities and may award grants or state aid to certain local governmental units and nonprofit conservation organizations (NCOs) to acquire and develop land for these purposes. Current law establishes the amounts that DNR may obligate in each fiscal year through fiscal year 2025-26 for expenditure under each of five subprograms of the stewardship program.

The bill reauthorizes the stewardship program until fiscal year 2029-30.

Under the stewardship subprogram for land acquisition, the bill continues to require that $1,000,000 be set aside to be obligated only for DNR land acquisition in each fiscal year. This equals the amount that current law requires to be set aside to be obligated only for DNR to acquire land for the Ice Age Trail. The bill reduces from $7,000,000 to $2,000,000 the amount to be set aside to be obligated for grants to NCOs to acquire and develop property for certain conservation purposes.

Under current law, in the stewardship program the term “obligate” means to encumber or otherwise commit or to expend without having previously encumbered or otherwise committed, and is used with respect to limits on obligating or requirements to obligate certain amounts in the stewardship program. The bill specifies that “obligate” only refers to encumbering, otherwise committing, or expending public debt that the state is authorized to contract. In other words, “obligate” does not refer to amounts that are not the result of bonding.

Under current law, DNR may obligate moneys for local assistance under the subprogram for property development and local assistance only for grant programs for urban green space, local parks, acquisition of property development rights, and urban rivers. Current law requires that such a grant may only be for up to 50 percent of the acquisition costs or development costs of a project. Under the bill, for such grants awarded to a governmental unit, no more than 30 percent of the remaining costs may be paid with funding provided from grants or in-kind contributions. Under current law, these grant programs define “governmental unit” to include a city, village, town, county, or the Kickapoo reserve management board and, for urban green space grants, to also include a lake sanitary district or public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district. The bill also provides that if a governmental unit applies for such a grant after closing on the acquisition of the land in question, the grant may only be for up to 40 percent of the acquisition costs.

The bill requires DNR to prioritize projects under any subprogram that involves property development over those that involve land acquisition.

The bill eliminates a current law restriction providing that, of the amount set aside for DNR land acquisition and county forest grants under the stewardship program in a given fiscal year, not more than one-third may be obligated for the purpose of DNR land acquisition. The bill also eliminates a current law restriction providing that, of all of the available stewardship program bonding authority in a fiscal year, not more than 20 percent may be obligated for the acquisition of parcels of lands that are less than 10 acres in size. The bill adds a restriction that DNR may not obligate stewardship moneys for a land acquisition project that exceeds $1,000,000. For such projects, the bill creates a new, separate major land acquisitions program.

Under the bill, in addition to obligating stewardship moneys to provide grants to NCOs for the acquisition of land for certain conservation purposes, DNR may obligate moneys to provide grants to NCOs to develop, manage, preserve, restore, and maintain wildlife habitat on public lands to benefit game species and other wildlife. The bill requires DNR to prioritize wildlife habitat grants over land acquisition grants under the NCO grant program.

Under current law, if in a given fiscal year the amount DNR obligates to provide land acquisition grants to NCOs is less than the amount set aside for that purpose in that fiscal year, DNR may obligate the unobligated amount in the next fiscal year but only for the purpose of awarding a grant to a county for the acquisition of land for a county forest. Under this bill, such unobligated amounts may only be obligated for local assistance grants.

Under current law, if DNR does not obligate an amount authorized to be obligated for a subprogram in a fiscal year, DNR may not adjust the annual bonding authority for that subprogram by raising the annual bonding authority for the next fiscal year. Under current law, portions of the unobligated amounts for the land acquisition, property development and local assistance, and recreational boating aids subprograms from various fiscal years from 2011-12 to 2025-26 are obligated for specific purposes. One such provision under current law requires DNR to obligate all unobligated amounts from those subprograms from any fiscal year, including for drilling new wells, facility maintenance, upgrades, and renovations, and construction of new buildings. The bill limits this obligation to only those unobligated amounts for those subprograms from the fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23, and specifies that $2,500,000 of that unobligated amount must be obligated for projects at the Les Voigt State Fish Hatchery and the Brule State Fish Hatchery, including drilling new wells, facility maintenance, upgrades and renovations, and construction of new buildings.

Major land acquisitions program

The bill creates a new major land acquisitions program, under which the bill authorizes DNR to use or obligate moneys to acquire land for the state for conservation purposes or to award grants to NCOs or local governments to acquire land for those purposes if two conditions are met: 1) the project or grant exceeds $1,000,000; and 2) the project or grant is enumerated through legislation. To request enumeration of such projects, the bill requires DNR annually to, no later than January 15, submit to the joint committee on finance and to the appropriate legislative standing committees a list of all proposed major land acquisitions for the subsequent fiscal biennium, including estimated purchase prices, requested state funding sources, and nonstate sources of funding, such as federal grants or donations. The bill authorizes DNR to submit a list of proposed major land acquisitions not listed under the prior proposed list at any time during a fiscal biennium. Under the bill, the legislature may enumerate projects from either list through legislation.