1 / 13

Forestry Account

Forestry Account. Legislative Audit Bureau February 2002. Overview. Forestry Account supports activities in DNR and eight other state agencies Account is funded by a state property tax of $0.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value

zuzela
Download Presentation

Forestry Account

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Forestry Account Legislative Audit Bureau February 2002

  2. Overview • Forestry Account supports activities in DNR and eight other state agencies • Account is funded by a state property tax of $0.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value • Must be used to acquire, preserve, and develop forests of the state

  3. Program Expenditures • Increased from $63 million in FY 1997-98 to $72.3 million in FY 2000-01 • Staffing costs represent 60 percent of all expenditures • Funded 644.1 FTEs within DNR • 449.7 FTE directly associated with forestry • 194.4 FTE mainly administrative positions

  4. Expenditures By Activity Type • Of the $72.3 million spent in FY 2000-01: • $52.2 million spent for forestry activities; • $12.2 million spent for department-wide administration and support activities; • $4.5 million supported activities not directly related to forestry; and • $3.4 million spent for debt service

  5. Administrative Expenditures • Totaled $18.7 million in FY 2000-01 • Represented 27.8 percent of all Forestry Account expenditures made by DNR • $12.2 million for department-wide administrative and support costs • $6.5 million for forestry administration costs

  6. Department-wide Administrative Costs • $7.1 million for services such as: • financial services • human resources • management and budget, and • facility rental • $2.7 million for land program management • $2.2 million for customer assistance and licensing

  7. Questioned Benefit to Forestry • Forestry Account funded 15 percent all all costs for customer assistance and licensing • Only 3.5 percent of license revenue deposited in Forestry Account • From FY 1996-97 to FY 2000-01: • Administrative positions increased by 28 FTE • Forestry positions decreased by 12 FTE

  8. Costs Not Directly Related to Forestry • $4.5 million in FY 2000-01: • $1.3 million by DNR • $3.2 million by two other agencies • For DNR, costs increased 84 percent between FY 1997-98 and FY 2000-01 • In FY 2000-01 included: • $455,000 for 8 wildlife positions • $155,000 for grant and land acquisition • $27,000 to register deer, bear, and turkeys

  9. Other Agencies’ Non-forestry Costs • In FY 2000-01: • $3.2 million spent by the Wisconsin Conservation Corps for a number of conservation projects • $33,700 by the Wisconsin Historical Society for staff person at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center

  10. Managed Forest Law Program • Provides tax relief to individuals and corporate forestland owners • Requires commitments by participants to practice sustainable forestry • Applications increased 78 percent since 1997 (3,251 submitted in 2001) • More than 2 million acres enrolled in the program

  11. Workload Issues • Most work related to development of management plans for enrolled land • Staff have not been able to address all of their responsibilities • Over 12,000 mandatory practices on 187,165 acres are overdue • Backlog has led to deferral of $2.4 million to the State and local governments

  12. Closing Enrolled Acres • May close enrolled land to public access for $1.00 per acre • Concerns exist about participants dividing their land to close more acres • 81 percent of 20,000 enrollments were closed to public access • Options are available to encourage more land to remain open

  13. Forestry Account Legislative Audit Bureau February 2002

More Related