An unexpected feature of the pending state budget could be the largest cut in funding for recreation and conservation in the commonwealth's history. In a prelude to state budget negotiations, the Senate passed Senate Bill 913, which would cut the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund by almost 50 percent. House leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell may sign on to reach a budget deal.

Andrew M. Loza is executive director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (aloza@conserveland.org).

The Keystone Fund has supported thousands of community park projects, including athletic fields, community centers, playgrounds and pools. It has helped build hundreds of miles of recreational trails. It has protected tens of thousands of acres of open space and wildlife habitat. It has improved public access to our state parks and forests. It has supported library and museum construction projects.

The proposed cut threatens playground development in Natrona and parkland acquisition in South Fayette. It threatens trail and bridge work in Pittsburgh's Frick Park and improvement to the Montour Trail in Washington County. In just the first year, the cut would threaten dozens of county and local park improvement projects in southwestern Pennsylvania. Future years of the cut would result in hundreds of projects never happening.

Each dollar of Keystone Fund investment typically leverages a dollar or more in direct local investments in our parks, special community open spaces and libraries. And the indirect benefits brought by improving the livability of our communities and providing recreational and outdoor opportunities to our children are immeasurable.

The senators favoring the cut have argued that their $40 million annual diversion from the Keystone Fund would not harm conservation and recreation because the fund has grown and its revenue source -- 15 percent of the realty transfer tax -- continues to grow. The senators seem to have forgotten that their predecessors intended it this way.

The senators of 1993 saw that conservation and recreation needs were growing explosively, with the costs increasing each year. Hence, the Senate voted 48-0 and the House 196-3 to create a permanent fund that would grow as the real estate market grew. With land acquisition and recreation demands and costs having grown many-fold since the fund's establishment, the wisdom of those 1993 legislators is evident.

Ironically, today's senators propose this massive cut at a time when the housing market decline has shrunk the realty tax revenues that support Keystone Fund projects by $19 million. The irony goes deeper: In a 2005 public referendum, Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly supported a new $625 million Growing Greener bond issue to invest in Pennsylvania's environmental well-being. The borrowing will be paid back over 20 years. Now, the senators propose to axe conservation and recreation funding by $800 million over 20 years.

The senators defend their action by saying that the governor diverted $75 million from the Keystone Fund last year. To set the record straight, the governor, with the Senate's consent, made an accounting change to the Keystone Fund to make it consistent with other state accounting practices. Not a single dollar was lost from the annual funding stream for community conservation and recreation projects. The present Senate proposal, in contrast, calls for $40 million previously intended to support conservation and recreation infrastructure projects to be eliminated each year.

When Keystone Fund cuts are put on the state budget negotiating table, Gov. Rendell has the power to just say "no." We hope he does say no to this ill-conceived hit on Pennsylvania's key recreation and conservation funding program -- a hit that would wipe out all the good he has done for recreation and conservation during his administration.

We also hope that Pennsylvania legislators will uphold the tremendous recreation and conservation legacy that their predecessors -- Republican and Democrat -- established with the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund.