Bullet Points to counter DOI effort to use FY 13 Stateside funds for national competitive grants

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Here are some bullet points to address DOI efforts to take stateside funding in FY 13 to implement their national competitive grants program.  Let me know if this works or if you need more info. ( Stacey Pine, NRPA )

·         The President’s FY13 budget proposes using State Assistance funding to fund a competitive grant program.  Given the level of funding of the State Assistance program, and the fact that the competitive grant program would fund only a very few large scale projects at the expense of funding that would go to every state, we do not believe this is a wise decision

·         The FY12 Interior Appropriations bill provided $45 million to the State Assistance program.  Forty percent of those funds are distributed equally to all states, with the remaining 60 % distributed on the basis of population.

·         The states have reported unmet need of 18.5 billion dollars in FY 11, so obviously we would like to see more funding invested in the State Assistance program, rather than money be taken away for federal priorities.

·         The State Assistance program works, in part, because it distributes the funds to every state in the nation on a formula basis that is fair and equitable. ( See bullet one above )

·         The proposed DOI competitive grant program would use funds that would normally flow to every state to fund only large scale projects in urban areas.  It is unlikely that most states would benefit from these grants which means, they would miss out on funding.  The President’s Budget calls for $60 million to go to the State Assistance program.  If you were to provide $15 million of that to the proposed competitive grant program, so that $45 million (the same amount as SS received in FY12) was distributed to states according to the current formula, you would be denying most states the ability to receive additional funding because DOI indicated they would only be able to fund 5 projects in any year, so 90% of the states would qualify for competitive grant funding.

·         Given the state’s level of unmet need, every dollar that flows into the State Assistance program is critical to helping each state meet the needs of it’s citizens.  If you want to invest more money into the State Assistance program, then to be fair you must ensure all states will receive an equal benefit.  The best way to do that is to provide additional funding to the State Assistance program while ensuring that this additional funding will be provided equitably to every state in the nation.