Budget puts environmental panel 'in limbo'

• A change in how the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission is funded has put it in jeopardy.
• It%27s been a political football for decades.
• Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters will decide its fate after a budget review.

The future of the 42-year-old Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission is in doubt following a General Assembly budget deal that gives the Secretary of the Energy and Environmental Cabinet authority to defund the commission.

And Cabinet Secretary Len Peters is not saying what he intends to do.

But in their budget deal, lawmakers decided the commission would get its funding from the cabinet instead of a restricted-use line item, said Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council.

"It was not the intent of the General Assembly to defund the commission," FitzGerald said. "They did that on the assumption that the secretary would be able to absorb the cost."

But Dick Brown, spokesman for the cabinet, said he could not say whether Peters was determined to keep the commission, which was created in 1972 as an independent agency to advise the governor and cabinet secretary on environmental matters and act as an ombudsman.

Brown said the cabinet was "examining the budget for possible impacts. We will have a better idea of its implications once we have completed our assessment."

The commission's executive director, Arnita Gadson, said she doesn't know where the commission stands in Peters' priorities. She said the commission "is kind of in limbo."

But she said past budget cuts had already severely crippled its ability to do what it used to do, including preparing annual reports on the status of Kentucky's environment and tracking the cabinet's performance.

She said when she came to the commission six years ago, she was one of four full-time employees. Now it's just her and a temporary worker, she said.

The EQC's most recent annual budget was $263,000, said Gadson, whose salary is $95,445.

Gadson said she has been a liaison between residents and the agency in seeking to resolve contamination and health concerns at two sites in Louisville — the Lees Lane Landfill and the former Black Leaf pesticide plant factory. The commission this year also held public meetings on the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline but has not yet issued any recommendations on the controversial natural gas liquids project.

"I think there's definitely a need for the commission," said commission chairman Mark Grishham, who works for the United States Enrichment Corp. in Paducah.

"But I am waiting to see what happens like everybody else."

If Peters plans to defund the commission, the commission needs to plan "an exit strategy," he said.

FitzGerald, who closely tracks environmental issues in Frankfort, said the commission was created to be a "public counterweight" to the the "bureaucratic tendencies" of state government.

"There are times when it has been more effective than others," he said. "It's extremely important that this public forum be maintained."

The commission's budget was once fully independent of the cabinet, giving it some insulation from political pressures. It will be harder for the commission to be a cabinet watchdog if its budget is dependent on the cabinet secretary, he said.

The commission has been a political football for decades. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce sought to get rid of it in 2003 during a General Assembly fight that resulted in a budget cut.

Chamber spokesman Chad Harpole said the chamber was neutral on commission funding this year.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 or on Twitter @jbruggers.