JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Conservation Commission recently won the first round in a legal fight over its ability to acquire land despite lawmakers stripping out the agency’s land-buying authority in this year’s state budget.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker that voters in 1936 intended to create the Conservation Commission as an agency with “plenary,†or absolute, authority over the Conservation Fund.
He ruled that Office of Administration Commissioner Sarah Steelman must approve conservation officials’ planned purchase of 510 acres of land in St. Clair County and other payments to counties the Office of Administration had blocked.
The April 22 ruling was issued as lawmakers debated how independent the conservation commission should be, and could influence future debates on the issue.
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The four-member Conservation Commission, which is appointed by the governor, appoints the director of the Department of Conservation and makes spending and regulatory decisions for the department.
Walker, in his decision, also cited two legal opinions, issued in the 1950s by the Missouri attorney general’s office, that “correctly†concluded legislative attempts to control conservation spending through appropriations acts were “unconstitutional†attempts to insert general legislation in a budget bill.
“The same analysis applies†in this case, Walker ruled.
Chris Nuelle, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said Friday the state was appealing the ruling.
The dispute dates to last year, when the Legislature removed wording from the state budget that had authorized land purchases using the state Conservation Fund.
Despite the seeming restriction, the Conservation Commission on July 9 approved the purchase of 510 acres of land in St. Clair County, 350 of which were classified as imperiled tallgrass prairie habitat, according to court records.
The commission asked the Office of Administration to approve payment for the land on Aug. 24, but the judgment said the office had not authorized the requested payment for the property.
The Office of Administration has also blocked the Conservation Commission from making payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to counties, which the commission has made annually since a 1980 constitutional amendment took effect, the ruling said. Those payments are designed to help county government make up the tax revenue they lose when a tax-exempt public entity increases its land holdings.
Walker’s ruling says the commission was created due to “dissatisfaction†with the “politically appointed and underfunded†Fish and Game Department.
Decades of mismanagement and the severe drought in the 1930s resulted in the passage of Amendment 4 in 1936 with more than 71% of the vote, Walker wrote.
The amendment, Walker wrote, vested the commission “with broad authority over conservation subjects, personnel decisions, conservation land acquisition decisions ...â€
He noted two Missouri Supreme Court rulings in 1938 found the Conservation Commission had “unique constitutional authority over its own management and conservation subjects.â€
“The voters did intend to give plenary authority over the Conservation Fund to the Conservation Commission,†Walker wrote. “The voters did not intend to leave in the hands of the General Assembly the ability to dictate whether, how much, and for what the Conservation Commission could spend from the Conservation Fund.â€
The dispute over the land purchase is just one recent clash between the Department of Conservation and the Legislature.
Lawmakers last year budgeted $300,000 so that the Department of Conservation would include feral hogs in its “Share the Harvest†program historically used for deer hunters to donate excess venison to poor people.
Conservation officials, citing food safety regulations, declined to use the money to process feral hogs.
Officials instead said they intended to pay the Conservation Federation of Missouri $125,000 from another fund to pay for last year’s deer-only Share the Harvest program, even though lawmakers barred money from that fund from going to the Conservation Federation.
A spokesman for the Department of Conservation said the money was paid to the Conservation Federation on April 22, the same day Walker ruled against the state Office of Administration and for conservation officials.