The 2026 proposed DOI budget. Let's talk numbers...

Cutting $900m from NPS. Getting rid of the pesky and unnecessary land acquisition from LWCF. Rumors floating around DC that they want to transfer many of the Parks to the States.

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A few relevant "highlights" for anyone who doesn't feel like reading through the entire document. We already have the thread talking about the complete dismantling of the USGS Ecosystems unit so I left that one out even if it's one of the more painful ones. Dollar amounts in thousands.




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BLM
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NRCS in Montana is losing 64% of its FTE and 74% of its budget. Wowza🙈
 
Justabirdwatcher said:
But, but, we LoVe our ParKs... 🥴
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"In strengthening the Federal Government’s commitment to neighboring communities, the Budget proposes to transfer excess Federal lands to willing States and Tribes. Many parks and other Federal lands receive only a limited number of local visitors and do not constitute a primary Federal responsibility. Transferring those lands to willing States and Tribes supports local communities and their economies."
 
sapperJ24 said:
"In strengthening the Federal Government’s commitment to neighboring communities, the Budget proposes to transfer excess Federal lands to willing States and Tribes. Many parks and other Federal lands receive only a limited number of local visitors and do not constitute a primary Federal responsibility. Transferring those lands to willing States and Tribes supports local communities and their economies."
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Apparently they will keep trying to slip it through every bill or budget they can until we don't notice or get exhausted in fighting it.
 
jryoung said:
Want to make sure I understand this correctly since the comparison is the 2025 CR....Is this essentially allocating zero dollars for NAWCA grants next year?View attachment 373847
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We're both accountants, so we speak this language.

The bottom category to your sheet shows that 2026 LWCF funding takes the $900 million promised in the Great American Outdoor Act for acquisition of inholdings and easements, and cuts it to $78 million. That's a way to add $800 million to fund the gap between revenue/expenses, and hope nobody notices the diversion of earmarked funds. I looked at Ag/USFS and it seems that any money allocated there is also going to deferred maintenance and not acquisition.

If this is how it unfolds, we got sold a bill of goods with passage of the GAOA of 2020.
 
Big Fin said:
We're both accountants, so we speak this language.

The bottom category to your sheet shows that 2026 LWCF funding takes the $900 million promised in the Great American Outdoor Act for acquisition of inholdings and easements, and cuts it to $78 million. That's a way to add $800 million to fund the gap between revenue/expenses, and hope nobody notices the diversion of earmarked funds. I looked at Ag/USFS and it seems that any money allocated there is also going to deferred maintenance and not acquisition.

If this is how it unfolds, we got sold a bill of goods with passage of the GAOA of 2020.
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Basically my read on this stuff as well. (Edit: the Def maintenance is largely at National Parks) A lot of stuff gets added to the budget/bills with the intention of taking it out so some can claim the "victory" of getting it eliminated in the next election cycle. There is so much crazy stuff in this budget, some of it may follow that path. However, we can't take it for granted that it will be done, so again we have to send emails and make phone calls, if only to make sure it gets taken out. This basically begs for a split government. When there are no checks and balances on power, the average American gets steamrolled.
 
Beignet said:
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the logic of supercharging the national deficit while simultaneously slashing budgets and making everything shittier.
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It pays for tax cuts that not many people have asked for. They're really not "tax cuts," rather generational tax burden transfers. Merely refusing to pay for what we demand today and expecting future generations to bear higher tax/interest burdens.

Wall Street is starting to sound alarms about the level of the US debt. Interest expense soon to exceed $1 trillion annually. Jamie Dimon, one who many look to for his years of experience at JP Morgan, “You are going to see a crack in the bond market, OK?”

A billionaire author and noted investment expert released this book today - https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Investment-Economic-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124064

Front page of the WSJ today.

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I've always been a "lowest taxes as possible" kind of guy, but never a "let my kids pay my freight" kind of guy. If we aren't willing to pay for the services we demand, we better accept the reality of what we are doing - placing ridiculous financial burned on the next generations such that they will never see the prosperity and opportunity we've had.

There is no way out of this at the current level of revenues. We are already $800 Billion in red, each year, after defense spending. That assumes no emergencies, no wars, no natural disasters, no pandemics, no Wall Street bailouts, all of which have occurred in the last 20 years, some occurring multiple times.

Cut every other government service beyond defense and we still are close to a trillion dollars in the whole. Yet, my generation feels they need a tax cut. If it means I pass less debt on to the next generation, I'd accept a tax hike. I've benefited to a high degree from all that this country provides. I could never buy my proportionate share of government services, defense, infrastructure, and institutions that keep our economy booming, for a price equivalent to what I pay in taxes.

These institutions that provide stable markets, mostly free trade, great opportunity, properly funded schools and police, medical systems, infrastructure to take are of sick/old/veterans, all create a situation where my hard work, risk, and luck (yeah, there's always plenty of luck involved) have been leveraged far beyond what the financial returns would have been in some other country. And as much as my balance sheet has been amplified due to all of the things that make this country the land of opportunity, the balance sheets of publicly traded corporations and billionaires have been amplified to a degree that would not be possible anywhere else on this planet. Yet, they think we all need a tax cut so we can transfer our debts to the next generation rather than suck it up ourselves.

These effing idgits think they're going to close the gap by further reducing revenues and playing around with a few small departments/agencies that are disliked by some of their pals. And we wonder why we're in the situation we are. It has hardly anything to do with Department of Interior, the subject of this thread, and everything to do with a collective group of 536 elected officials who have been financial derelicts for the last 25 years.

Think I'll go tie up some walleye spinners to get my mind clear.
 
"we better accept the reality of what we are doing - placing ridiculous financial burned on the next generations such that they will never see the prosperity and opportunity we've had."

Already happened. No other generation has experienced the prosperity of white American boomers and it's likely they never will. Older X'ers who were fortunate and worked and saved a long time (myself) can come close, but we're far better off than the generations that have followed us. None of my kids are even thinking about buying a house, and they all have advanced degrees and work their asses off. I don't have any grandkids yet for one main reason - they can't afford them.

I already admired you Randy for the way you presented yourself during your hunting programs, but I admire you a lot more for being one of the few boomers who admits the truth about the prosperty that boomers have enjoyed, and the way they have (knowingly or not) mortgaged the future of generations that have followed. You'll never get elected to office speaking those truths, but you'd still get my vote.
 
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