State officials are scrambling to restructure what would be the second-largest land preservation deal in Maryland history, hoping to make it more palatable to skeptical politicians facing the worst budget crunch in a decade.
Department of Natural Resources Secretary J. Charles Fox told lawmakers yesterday that a plan to protect 25,000 acres of forest in Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore has been altered so Maryland would pay $4.34 million in cash at the outset -- barely half of the project's initial $8 million cash outlay.
In an interview, Fox said the deal was recast in part to win the support of Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, two members of the Board of Public Works. The board is set to vote on the proposal today; Schaefer has said he opposes the transaction, while Kopp is studying it.
The third member of the board, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, is a strong advocate of the deal. It has been negotiated in the 11th hour of his administration and is seen by some as a punctuation mark on his legacy as an environmentalist.
Some top lawmakers have said the state can't afford the purchase while facing a two-year budget gap of $1.8 billion. Legislators also say they were kept in the dark for too long about the proposal, which was first reported in The Sun this month.
"The timing and the failure of you to come to those [in the General Assembly] who could support you validates some of the criticism," Del. Mary-Dulany James, a Harford County Democrat, told Fox during an informal meeting of the House Appropriations Committee.
State officials have been negotiating the purchase with a partner, the Conservation Fund, a national environmental group. The property is owned by Pennsylvania-based Glatfelter Pulp Wood Co.
The total value of the deal -- which includes land and development rights known as easements -- is more than $20 million. Maryland would borrow about $12 million for the purchase through the state GreenPrint program, and under the revisions, $4.34 million in cash would come from a fund known as Program Open Space. The Conservation Fund would pay about $6 million, with much of that money coming from federal funds yet to be authorized.
Del. Howard P. Rawlings of Baltimore, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, asked Fox to brief lawmakers on the proposal yesterday. Rawlings then called for a nonbinding vote by the committee (incoming and departing legislators were present for a "retreat" to learn about state issues), and the deal was rejected.
The committee then agreed to defer the purchase. Rawlings said the votes would be forwarded to the Board of Public Works.
Lawmakers told Fox yesterday that they sensed little urgency to complete the transaction by the end of the year, as Glatfelter wants.
"That land's not going anywhere," said Del. Samuel C. Linton, a Charles County Democrat, who said he grows trees near a portion of the proposed preservation area. "There's no real growth pressure."
Added Del. Norman H. Conway, a Salisbury Democrat and vice chairman of the committee: "Somebody's going to have to really convince me that we need to do this."