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PRINTER'S NO. 4548
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
2934
Session of
2020
INTRODUCED BY O'MARA, ULLMAN, MULLERY, ISAACSON, STURLA, KINSEY,
A. DAVIS, SAPPEY, WARREN, FREEMAN, HILL-EVANS, ZABEL,
YOUNGBLOOD, McCLINTON, MURT AND NEILSON, OCTOBER 19, 2020
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY,
OCTOBER 19, 2020
AN ACT
Amending the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L.343, No.176), entitled
"An act relating to the finances of the State government;
providing for cancer control, prevention and research, for
ambulatory surgical center data collection, for the Joint
Underwriting Association, for entertainment business
financial management firms, for private dam financial
assurance and for reinstatement of item vetoes; providing for
the settlement, assessment, collection, and lien of taxes,
bonus, and all other accounts due the Commonwealth, the
collection and recovery of fees and other money or property
due or belonging to the Commonwealth, or any agency thereof,
including escheated property and the proceeds of its sale,
the custody and disbursement or other disposition of funds
and securities belonging to or in the possession of the
Commonwealth, and the settlement of claims against the
Commonwealth, the resettlement of accounts and appeals to the
courts, refunds of moneys erroneously paid to the
Commonwealth, auditing the accounts of the Commonwealth and
all agencies thereof, of all public officers collecting
moneys payable to the Commonwealth, or any agency thereof,
and all receipts of appropriations from the Commonwealth,
authorizing the Commonwealth to issue tax anticipation notes
to defray current expenses, implementing the provisions of
section 7(a) of Article VIII of the Constitution of
Pennsylvania authorizing and restricting the incurring of
certain debt and imposing penalties; affecting every
department, board, commission, and officer of the State
government, every political subdivision of the State, and
certain officers of such subdivisions, every person,
association, and corporation required to pay, assess, or
collect taxes, or to make returns or reports under the laws
imposing taxes for State purposes, or to pay license fees or
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other moneys to the Commonwealth, or any agency thereof,
every State depository and every debtor or creditor of the
Commonwealth," in oil and gas wells, further providing for
definitions and for oil and gas lease fund and providing for
Public Natural Resources Trust Fund.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Sections 1601-E and 1601.2-E of the act of April
9, 1929 (P.L.343, No.176), known as The Fiscal Code, are amended
to read:
Section 1601-E. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this article
shall have the meanings given to them in this subarticle unless
the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Department." The Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources of the Commonwealth.
"Fund." The Oil and Gas Lease Fund.
"Marcellus well." An active production well certified by the
Department of Environmental Protection as a well from which gas
from the Marcellus Shale formation, as determined by the United
States Geological Survey, was extracted during the fiscal year,
including wells on Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth land.
"Trust fund." The Public Natural Resource Trust Fund
established in section 1601.3-E.
Section 1601.2-E. Oil and Gas Lease Fund.
(a) Continuation.--The fund is continued as a special fund
in the State Treasury.
(b) Sources.--The following shall be deposited into the
fund:
(1) Rents and royalties from oil and gas leases of land
owned by the Commonwealth, except rents and royalties
received from game and fish lands.
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(2) Amounts as provided under section 5 of the act of
October 8, 2012 (P.L.1194, No.147), known as the Indigenous
Mineral Resources Development Act.
(3) Any other money appropriated or transferred to the
fund.
(c) Use.--Money in the fund may only be used as provided
under subsection (e) or as annually appropriated by the General
Assembly. In making an appropriation from the fund, the General
Assembly shall consider the Commonwealth's trustee duties under
section 27 of Article I of the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
(d) Priority.--Money appropriated from the fund under a
General Appropriation Act or other appropriation act shall be
distributed prior to allocations under subsection (e).
(e) Annual transfers.--The following apply:
(1) For the [2017-2018] 2018-2019 fiscal year and each
fiscal year thereafter, [$20,000,000] $35,000,000 shall be
transferred from the fund to the Marcellus Legacy Fund for
distribution to the Environmental Stewardship Fund.
(2) For the 2017-2018 fiscal year and each fiscal year
thereafter, $15,000,000 shall be transferred from the fund to
the Marcellus Legacy Fund for distribution to the Hazardous
Sites Cleanup Fund.
(3) For the 2018-2019 fiscal year and each fiscal year
thereafter, as provided in section 1601.3-E.
(4) In the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which the principal of the trust fund exceeds the amount set
forth in section 1601.3-E(d)(2) and each fiscal year
thereafter, all money in the fund shall be appropriated to
the department as authorized under this section.
Section 2. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
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Section 1601.3-E. Public Natural Resources Trust Fund.
(a) Establishment.--The Public Natural Resources Trust Fund
is established as a special fund in the State Treasury.
(b) Revenue sources.--In addition to the transfers
authorized in paragraph (1), the trust fund shall include money
appropriated by the General Assembly, money received from the
Federal Government and grants or donations from other sources.
Interest and any other earnings shall remain in the trust fund.
Gifts and donations of marketable securities may be held or
disposed of for cash at the option of the State Treasurer. The
cash receipts of gifts and donations of cash or capital assets
and marketable securities disposed of for cash must be credited
immediately to the principal of the trust fund. When marketable
securities are disposed of for cash, the amount to be credited
to the trust fund shall be the value of the marketable
securities at the time of the gift or donation. The following
apply:
(1) Beginning with the 2018-2019 fiscal year and every
year thereafter, all rents and royalties paid into the fund
in excess of $70,000,000 shall be transferred to the trust
fund.
(2) Disbursements from the trust fund shall be made only
when the balance of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000.
(c) Balance.--Money in the trust fund not expended or
distributed in the fiscal year in which they were made available
shall not lapse and shall be available for use under this
section in the next fiscal year.
(d) Disposition.--
(1) For fiscal year 2018-2019 through the fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which the principal of the trust
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fund exceeds $700,000,000, of the remaining rents and
royalties paid into the fund after any transfer under
subsection (b)(1):
(i) The department shall allocate 57% as follows:
(A) Forty percent for the department's community
recreation and conservation program for grant funding
of projects that meet the purposes set forth in
subsection (e).
(B) Sixty percent for use by the department for
projects on State park and State forest land that
meet the purposes set forth in subsection (e).
(ii) Forty-three percent shall be transferred to the
Environmental Stewardship Fund, of which:
(A) Sixty-five percent shall be for use by the
Department of Environmental Protection for projects
that meet the purposes set forth in subsection (e).
(B) Thirty-five percent shall be for use by the
Department of Agriculture for farmland preservation
projects, not to exceed $15,000,000 in a fiscal year.
(2) For the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which the principal of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000
and each fiscal year thereafter, the department may allocate
from the trust fund an amount up to the amount of interest
income derived from investment of money in the trust fund
during the preceding fiscal year. The allocation under this
paragraph is subject to the State Treasurer certifying in the
financial report required under subsection (h) that making
the allocation will not reduce the principal of the trust
fund.
(3) The department shall allocate the money available
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under paragraph (2) in the same proportion as amounts
allocated under paragraph (1).
(4) A disposition of money under this subsection that is
inconsistent with the provisions of paragraph (1), (2) or (3)
may be made through approval of a separate appropriations
bill by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to the
Senate and the House of Representatives.
(e) Purposes.--The money in the trust fund may only be used
for the following purposes:
(1) Public land conservation.
(2) Public recreation.
(3) Watershed protection.
(4) Acid mining drainage abatement and maintenance and
operation of existing acid mining drainage projects.
(5) Heritage area projects.
(6) Conservation landscape initiatives of the
department.
(7) Farmland preservation.
(8) Greenways.
(9) Green infrastructure for flood mitigation.
(10) Reforestation and urban canopy projects.
(11) Abandoned well plugging.
(12) Habitat restoration.
(13) Monitoring and mitigation of impacts or damage to
State land caused by activity related to oil and gas
development.
(14) Acquisition of replacement land and buffers to
offset or prevent harm to State land caused by activity
related to oil and gas development.
(15) Acquisition of oil, gas and other mineral rights
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located under State land.
(16) Educational programming by the department and grant
recipients of the department, with a focus on science-based
natural resource conservation.
(17) Scientific research related to the other purposes
listed under this subsection.
(18) The annual audit required under subsection (j).
(19) The trust fund reports required under this section.
(f) Limitation.--Money in the trust fund may not be used to
fund maintenance or operating expenses, unless the expenses are
directly related to acid mining drainage projects existing as of
the effective date of this subsection.
(g) Supplemental funding.--Money in the trust fund shall
supplement funding from the General Fund, including the sources
of funding for the purposes listed in subsection (e). Money in
the trust fund may not be used to supplant existing General Fund
appropriations to the department or to any other agency of the
Commonwealth.
(h) Financial report.--The State Treasurer shall complete
and submit an annual financial report of the trust fund to the
Governor, the Attorney General and the Auditor General. The
report shall be submitted within 30 days of the end of the first
full fiscal year following the effective date of this subsection
and within 30 days of the end of each fiscal year thereafter.
The report shall contain the following:
(1) A statement of the principal then held in the trust
fund and any changes in the principal since the report of the
prior fiscal year.
(2) A statement of the trust fund income received during
the fiscal year in question.
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(3) A statement of the investments then held in the
trust fund, including descriptions and respective values of
the investments.
(4) Any other information determined by the State
Treasurer to reflect a full and complete disclosure of the
financial operations of the trust fund.
(i) Expenditure report.--The department shall complete and
submit an annual report of the expenditures authorized in
subsection (d) to the Governor, the Attorney General and the
chairperson and minority chairperson of the Environmental
Resources and Energy Committee of the Senate and the chairperson
and minority chairperson of the Environmental Resources and
Energy Committee of the House of Representatives. The report
shall be submitted within 45 days of the end of the first fiscal
year following the effective date of this subsection and within
45 days of the end of each fiscal year thereafter. The
department shall post and maintain each report on the
department's publicly accessible Internet website. The report
shall contain the following:
(1) For fiscal year 2018-2019 through the fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which the principal of the trust
fund exceeds $700,000,000:
(i) A description and accounting of all expenditures
and distributions from the fund for the preceding fiscal
year.
(ii) An outline of the objectives and planned
expenditures from the fund for the next fiscal year.
(2) For the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which the principal of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000
and each fiscal year thereafter:
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(i) A description and accounting for all
expenditures and distributions by the trust fund for the
preceding fiscal year.
(ii) An outline of the objectives and planned
expenditures from the trust fund for the next fiscal
year.
(j) Audit.--The Auditor General shall perform an audit of
the trust fund each fiscal year. Costs of the audit shall be
paid out of the trust fund.
(k) Public information.--Information in the possession of
the department, the Treasury Department, the Department of
Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture
relating to the trust fund shall be considered a public record
under the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), known as the
Right-to-Know Law.
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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