Funding for this service area come from a variety of sources – General ($746,343), Special and Federal Funds ($590,512)- and support fifteen FTE’s. General Funds support nine FTE’s while Federal Funds support six FTE’s

General Fund monies are budgeted in this service area for the payment of Virginia’s yearly dues to two interstate compact organizations - the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. General funds also support nine FTE that work with the Mandatory Reporting program, the Biological Sampling program and the Fisheries Plans and Statistics programs.

Special funds from the sale of commercial fishing licenses and the sale of recreational fishing licenses are used to support the core services of the service area that were lost due to permanent reductions in its general fund budget in a previous biennium.

Federal funds appropriations in this service area support the Access Point Angler Intercept Survey with three FTE’s and five to six seasonal workers and the Sturgeon/Turtle Endangered Species Grant with three FTE’s. 

This service area receives support from the general fund ($5,310,725) that supports eighty and a half FTE’s, special funds that support six FTE’s, and federal funds. 

General Fund support of this service has been reduced in response to general fund budget reductions.  In order to maintain the core service functions of this service area the reductions have been supplanted with funding from the sale of commercial and recreational fishing licenses and the use of federal grant monies.

The base general fund budget includes funds distributed from central appropriations to cover increased costs for salary and fringe benefits, including the continued increase in state insurance plan costs.  While the central appropriations support the increases and fringe benefits for personnel, the cost of other essential items (gasoline, lease cost for state vehicles, parts, equipment, vehicle repair services, etc.) continue to increase and must be covered with existing agency budget.  The budget reductions, in conjunction with the increase in operational costs, continues to be problematic to this service area.

Of the eighty six and a half positions allotted to this Service Area, eighty and a half are general funded (sixty four field MPO’s, five captains, eight first sergeants, one lieutenant, two mechanics and a one half FTE for a license sales agent). The remaining FTE’s consist of six dispatchers that are funded from Commonwealth Transportation Funds.

The agency continues to hold the equivalent of between three and six general funded Marine Police positions vacant and delay the hiring of newly vacant positions in order to generate sufficient funds within the service areas budget to cover the increasing cost of salaries, fringe benefits and other support services for the Marine Police and also to fund some Dispatch Center costs.

The 2018 Special Session of the General assembly included central appropriations of $145,997 in the first year and $350,394 in the second year from the general fund to support the cost for entry-level salary adjustments and one-year service adjustments for all members of the Virginia Marine Police effective January 10, 2019.   

At the beginning of the current biennium, the Law Enforcement Division’s base budget included an appropriation of $1,539,703 from Saltwater Recreational Fishing License revenues used primarily to offset the employer retirement and health insurance premiums for law enforcement. These monies replaced general funds that were eliminated from the law enforcement budget through an incremental series of budget reductions and continue to place the burden on the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Fund.

In FY 2018 reliance on the Commercial Fishing License Fund increased by $20,000 such that $62,000 is now part of the Law Enforcement Division base budget. 

All of the Commonwealth Transportation Funds (CTF) appropriated in the agency budget are used to support the agency’s Marine Dispatch Center to include the Dispatchers.  Law Enforcement operates 24 hours a day and 7 days per week. The source of the CTF money is un-refunded motor fuel taxes used in boats.

The agency participates in a Joint Enforcement Agreement (JEA) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These federal monies provided a stable source of funding for the MRC for approximately a decade. Unfortunately, the yearly JEA revenue has significantly declined over the last several years. The reduction for FY2020 wad 7%. These funds pay for the time the Marine Police Officers who are trained and certified for federal enforcement duties by staff from the Law Enforcement Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service/NOAA, spend on federal fisheries enforcement activities. Almost all of this work is done on days these trained Marine Police are not on duty for MRC, and the JEA funding allows our officers to be paid at an overtime rate for this work.

For at least the last decade JEA funding has provided the only stable source of funding for the purchase of equipment for the agency Law Enforcement Division. The agency lost all of its general funding for this purpose many years ago through a series of budget reductions. The JEA monies support both the federal enforcement activity as well as the purchase of equipment to support this activity – allowing the MRC to purchase an airplane, boats, motors, trailers, vehicles and some other law enforcement equipment.

Due to a budget reduction several years ago, the agency began to use $100,000 of the yearly JEA funding as a part of the Law Enforcement Division’s base budget.  JEA monies have funded most of the yearly telecommunications costs and some of the gas cost for the Marine Police.

Less JEA money being available to the Marine Police means that less money is available for equipment purchases for law enforcement each year and the money is not available to continue to cover the costs of the Marine Police telecommunications costs. The agency is currently evaluating how it can best deal with smaller amounts of yearly JEA revenues and how to best mitigate the significant impact this will have on the agency’s core services.

The Division also receives a yearly grant of NOAA monies for reimbursement of the time spent on interstate finfish enforcement as overseen by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. At the time these federal monies were first made available about 25 years ago, the agency lost an equivalent amount of general funding from the Law Enforcement budget.

The Law Enforcement Division also receives support from the recovery of indirect costs/overhead costs from several sources of federal monies that the Division receives monies from the sale of surplus equipment, monies from forfeited assets, and a few other non-general fund sources that provide minimal non-general funding support yearly.

This service area is entirely funded by support from the Salt Water Recreational Fishing Development Fund ($69,520) that supports a small portion of the salaries of two FTE’s in that fund that lend their expertise in this area and for the support of minimal equipment and fuel expenses for the monitoring of the deployment of reef materials.  They rely heavily on the donation of materials of opportunity due to limited funding availability.

This service area receives funding from the general fund ($671,432), special funds and federal funds.  Ten FTE’s are supported by the general fund, and three FTE’s are supported by the special funds.

The general funded FTE’s include the Chief of Fisheries Management, Deputy Chief, division support staff, Fisheries Planners and Data and Quota Management staff to ensure Virginia’s compliance with ASMFC guidelines.

Special funded FTE’s support the Fisheries Management and Mandatory Reporting Program from revenues collected from the Marine Fishing Improvement Fund.  This fund consists of that portion of nonresident harvester’s license fees, which have not been allocated to the Virginia Marine Products Fund, fees collected form the registration of commercial fisherman and fees collected from the sale of seafood landing licenses.  In addition to the FTE’s the fund also pays for the Fisheries Division’s computer services, clerical services for mandatory reporting, postal and printing services, travel and other miscellaneous expenses.  Action by the 2018 Special Session of the General Assembly upheld the language that was added into the Appropriation Act in the 2017 session that required commercial harvest license and gear use fees to be held steady at rates in force as of January 1, 2016.

Approximately $2.4 million dollars are collected annually from the sale of recreational saltwater fishing licenses. These funds support one FTE for this service area, and provide funding for projects to support Virginia's recreational fisheries, as described in Section 28.2-302.3 of the Code of Virginia, and to support agency law enforcement and fisheries management functions. Due to the recent series of budget reductions and the need to preserve core agency functions the great majority (approximately $2.1 million dollars) of the revenues collected each year from the sale of recreational fishing licenses go to support Marine Resources Commission (MRC) fisheries and law enforcement programs at MRC. The 2016 Session of the General Assembly mandated that the fees levied by the Commission for saltwater recreational fishing licenses shall be imposed at the level that was in effect on October 1, 2014 thus restricting the ability to increase the amount of revenue available for projects in the Salt Water Recreational Fishing Fund (SWRF).

The agency will to continue the Saltwater Sport Fishing Tournament however, no funds have been provided by the General Assembly for this purpose. The agency will continue to utilize the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Fund for this purpose.  As a result, the agency estimates that only $200,000 to $250,000 will be available yearly of the revenue from recreational licenses for allocation for projects that benefit the recreational fishing industry in the Commonwealth.

The two license funds provide matching dollars for the federal monies the agency receives each year from grants from the Department of the Interior. These federal Sport Fish Restoration Grant funds of approximately $1.8 million dollars are received annually, and are allocated primarily to VIMS and ODU for approved research projects that impact several fisheries species, such as striped bass, river herring and american shad. Many of these research projects have been funded for twenty or more years.

The Marine Resources Commission (MRC) FY2019 general fund appropriation is $2.75 million for oyster replenishment and restoration efforts in the Commonwealth.  The acts of the 2019 General Assembly increased the FY2020 general fund appropriation to $4.0 million for replenishment and restoration efforts.  The additional $750,000 was provided for support of oyster restoration in FY2019 and the additional $1,000,000 in FY2020 as approved by the 2019 General Assembly represents $500,000 in additional funding for oyster replenishment and an additional $500,000 for restoration, bringing the total funding dedicated towards replenishment to $2.5 million and the total funding dedicated to restoration to $1.5 million.  In addition, the State provides general funds ($332,665) to cover the salary and fringe benefit costs of the five program FTEs.

The Public Oyster Rocks Replenishment Fund is supported by oyster resource user fees (ORF) that were established by the 2014 session of the General Assembly upon the abolishment of oyster taxes.  The ORF generates between $360,000 and $400,000 annually.  The ORF monies are used solely to support the operating cost of the Oyster Propagation and Habitat Improvement service area, to support the annual oyster stock assessment, to provide funding for industry related projects including seed oysters, alternative cultch experiments and other small industry projects in response to developing issues.

The Service Area receives support from the General Fund ($1,045,992), Special Funds, and Federal Funds – and supports seventeen FTE’s.  General Funds supports eight FTE’s, Special Funds support six FTE’s and Federal Funds support three FTE’s.

General funds allocated to this service area also include appropriations that are dedicated for special purposes.  Virginia’s share of an Army Corps of Engineers project to construct a jetty to preserve the harbor on Tangier Island (FY 2019 - $245,687 and FY 2020 - $233,637) is allocated to this service area with the Commonwealths share fully expended by FY 2020.  In addition, general fund support for a public boat ramp project RF16-11/RF16-11a1 (FY2019 - $160,000) is allocated to this Service Area.

The Marine Habitat & Waterways Improvement Fund (WIF) receives monies from habitat permit and dredging fees, civil charges and encroachment fees. Prior to FY2018, this fund supported eleven FTE’s. In response to general fund budget reductions in FY2010, funding for ten FTE’s was required to be obtained from the WIF in order to continue to deliver the core functions of the service area.  Beginning in FY2018, general funds ($402,000) were added back to the general fund base budget.  The additions of the $402,000 back to the service area did not reflect the increased cost for salaries and benefits for the eight-year period that the ten employees were funded solely from the WIF.  The resulting shortage of approximately $110,000 (the equivalent of three FTE’s) continues to be supplanted by the WIF.  Three of the six FTE’s supported by this fund are not a result of budget reductions and remain supported by this fund.  While the use of the WIF to supplant budget reductions was intended to be a short-term solution, the lack of sufficient funding for the staffing level requires the continued use of the WIF for this purpose.  In some years the yearly obligations on this fund outweigh the revenue collected negatively effecting the funds available for the improvement of marine habitat and waterways.

Federal Funds allocated to Coastal Lands and Bottom Lands Management are received from a grant from the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program and support three FTE’s.

This service area is entirely general funded and general funds support eight FTE’s ($640,649). This area also shares two FTE with the Coastal Lands service area, with costs for one of the two FTE budgeted in each service area.

An additional $100,000 in general funding was added by the General Assembly in the 2017 session to assist with the fiscal impacts the then pending lease application surveying backlog.

This service area is fully funded from monies received from the sale of saltwater recreational fishing licenses ($220,000), and support two FTE. 

The Governor’s budget for the 2017 session of the General Assembly proposed the elimination of the Tournament and the two associated FTE in response to a budget reduction that would necessitate the additional use of the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Fund ($214,000) to further supplant the core functions for the Marine Life Regulation Enforcement service area.  This was not approved by the General Assembly and language was added into the agency’s section of the Appropriation Act that require the Tournament to continue. The two program FTEs were returned to the agency, and the agency sustained the budget reduction which further reduced the unobligated balance in the Fund that was previously available for funding a variety of projects that benefited the State’s Saltwater Recreational Fishery.

This service area is primarily general funded ($2,567,729 in year one and $2,617,729 in year two) and supports seventeen FTE’s and their associated support costs to include staff in the Administration and Finance Division, the agency’s Human Resources Division, the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and supporting staff, and the agency Business Systems Applications staff.  A small amount of funding is allocated from the sale of commercial fishing licenses ($85,000) to support the salary and fringe benefits cost of one FTE in accounting who works with the commercial fishing license program and a small amount of support is received from the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Fund ($36,596), to support work done to administer projects from this fund.

Monies are budgeted in this service area for the entire general fund portion of the Marine Resources Commission costs for: telecommunications services, the rent fees for the agency's headquarters facility which houses all agency employees except those field personnel whose homes serve as their base points and also contains all of the general fund monies budgeted for the agency's assessed Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA) in-scope services monthly charges.  Funds approved by the General Assembly in the 2018 Special Session include $52,000 for information technology upgrades for the agency.

As part of the Commonwealth’s plan to utilize the publically owned lands at Fort Monroe, the headquarters of the agency moved to that location in January of 2019.  It is the intent of the General Assembly that all operational assets of the Commission, including but not limited to communications, dispatch, and marine equipment storage be co-located as a part of the relocation project.  The General Assembly provided $175,000 in FY 2019 and $225,000 in FY 2020 in support for relocation costs of the current operations facility located at 30 Jefferson Avenue.