The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in Conservation Commission v. Bailey that the Missouri Department of Conservation will remain independent of the General Assembly.
The legislature had attempted to control how the Conservation Department spends its funds but an appeal from the Cole County circuit court gave the state’s highest court the opportunity to protect the state entity.
“The bottom line is that this is a ruling that says the legislature does not have the authority to insert itself into the budgetary process of a constitutionally independent agency so long as the funds are available within the conservation fund,” said former Gov. Jay Nixon and current Dowd Bennett practicing attorney.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, the case involves an appropriation proposal that omitted funds for the purchase of 510 acres of prairie habitat and 2020 payments in lieu of taxes (PILT).
“For 25 years, nobody ever tried something like this,” Nixon told the St. Louis Record. “This is way outside the norm. Clearly, the legislature is trying to run the Department of Conservation. You shouldn't have a legislature committee voting on whether something is an endangered prairie or not. You’ve got to have all kinds of scientific reports."
Nixon, a Democrat, served as the 55th Governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017.
The 510 acres of prairie land in question is intended to extend wildlife in St. Clair County, according to media reports but the Missouri Supreme Court opinion pointed to precedents set by previous state action.
“The very reason behind the Conservation Commission’s creation was to remedy the failure of existing government bodies in the 1930s, including the General Assembly, to set aside politics and properly manage Missouri’s conservation needs,” the opinion states. “Given that history, it would make little sense to allow the General Assembly to then impede the Conservation Commission's ability to perform that very role based on the whims of political discretion.”
Under the Missouri Constitution, the Conservation Fund “shall be expended and used by the Conservation Commission Department of Conservation for the control, management, restoration, conservation, and regulation of the bird, fish, game, forestry, and wildlife resources of the state, including the purchase or other acquisition of property for said purposes.”
As a result, instead of passing a law to gain authority over the Department, lawmakers would need to present a ballot initiative to voters to amend the Missouri Constitution but Nixon argues that such a referendum is unlikely to succeed.
"The money will be transferred to the Department of Conservation when the mandate is issued and they will make the payments," Nixon added. “I don't think a ballot initiative is likely at all. The people in Missouri support this value of an independent conservation commission. That's why when we had the last sales tax up for parks and swallow water conservation in Missouri, about 80% of the public supported the continuation of that tax. This is a value in Missouri.”