Farmland preservation supporters in Lancaster County and across the state are breathing easier this week.
The 2012-13 state budget signed over the weekend by Gov. Tom Corbett keeps intact the $20.49 million dedicated for farmland preservation.
In his initial budget proposal, the governor called for diverting that money to the state's General Fund to pay for other agricultural programs.
"I applaud the governor's support of this program," said Lancaster County Commissioner Dennis Stuckey, who also serves on the county's Agricultural Preserve Board and the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board.
"I think all the legislators across the state listened to their constituents that this is a worthwhile program."
Indeed state lawmakers and Corbett's office heard from preservation supporters opposed to the elimination of the dedicated state funding, said state Sen. Mike Brubaker of Warwick Township, who came out against the proposal to divert the funding.
"There was enough dialogue on this issue that, in the end, the cigarette-tax dollars were not taken away," he said. "It took citizens and pro-agriculture entities to make their voices heard."
The $20.49 million is collected annually via a tax on cigarette sales. State law stipulates that the money goes to farmland preservation.
Counties with preservation programs compete for that funding.
The distribution formula is complex, but generally, the counties that commit the most local dollars to buying development rights to farms are awarded the most state money.
For at least the past decade, Lancaster County has received the most funding of any county in the state.
This year, Lancaster was awarded $2.55 million from the state after the county commissioners pledged to commit $3.3 million in borrowed funds to farmland preservation here.
With more than 1,100 farms covering more than 90,000 acres under conservation easements, Lancaster County leads the nation in farmland preservation.
And when Corbett pitched his initial plan to eliminate the dedicated state funding for farmland preservation, local preservationists feared such a move would kill, or at least cripple, efforts to keep farms from being developed.
The state money, they said, is an incentive for counties to dedicate their own money to the cause.
This spring, a coalition of groups, including the nonprofit Lancaster Farmland Trust, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, American Farmland Trust and Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, came together to try to convince lawmakers that taking the cigarette tax money was a bad idea.
"Using the cigarette tax money has proven to be a very effective way to fund this program because we don't have to borrow any money, and it's a tax on an agricultural product that's paying for the preservation of agricultural land," said Karen Martynick, executive director of Lancaster Farmland Trust.
Stuckey said he knew Friday that the budget proposal being offered by the state House of Representatives kept the cigarette tax in place for farmland preservation.
But he didn't know if things changed during the wheeling and dealing that went on early Saturday before Corbett signed the 2012-13 budget minutes before midnight.
"I was glad when we were finally able to confirm (the money) was still intact," he said.
Martynick said she's happy with the current budget, but she expects to fight the same battle again next year.
"We won the battle, but the war is not over," she said. "As long as the state continues to project financial problems, this funding could be targeted, and we will be back in the fight again."
That's always possible, Brubaker conceded, but he said he believes farmland preservationists yelled loud enough during this budget season that state fiscal planners next year will look elsewhere for cuts.
"You could argue this was a referendum of sorts on farmland preservation funding," he said. "Clearly, the people of the Commonwealth want farmland preservation to be at least base-funded — even in these difficult economic times.
"The people crunching numbers for the state next year will remember this, and when they're looking for funds to transfer, they will look for funds that would create less problems."
