3440

VETOES

House Bill No. 1861

AN ACT concerning

Forest or Park Reserve Fund

FOR the purpose of providing that a certain portion of the
funds in the Forest or Park Reserve Fund shall be used
to revegetate and restore timber sale areas; basing
determining the amount of the payments that are made to
the counties on the remaining portion; clarifying the
provision relating to that Fund by deleting certain
archaic references; and reorganizing that provision.

May 27, 1980
Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17 of the
Maryland Constitution, I have today vetoed House Bill 1861.

As introduced, the intent of this departmental bill was
to insure State reinvestment in cutover State forest lands
by requiring that 10 percent of the revenues from timber
sales be used to recultivate those lands. The 10 percent
reinvestment was to have been deducted from the collected
revenues prior to county refunds being calculated. Under
this proposal, the counties, through a relatively minor
commitment, would have shared the costs of the preferenced
reinvestment for recultivation of our State forests.

During the legislative process, the bill was amended to
provide that, despite the provisions relating to the 10
percent reinvestment factor, the Department could not retain
revenues which would result in an annual county payment less
than that for fiscal year 1980.

That amendment is unclear. Evidently, the intent was
to maintain county payments at the 1980 level. However, as
to any year in which sales revenues are not high enough to
assure payments to the counties at the 1980 level after the
10 percent has been deducted, the amended act is subject to
several different interpretations.

The Department, as well as several conservation