Agency of Natural Resources: governor's FY26 recommendation about $342 million; federal grants drive growth, officials say

The Agency of Natural Resources presented the governor’s FY 2026 budget recommendation of just under $342 million on Feb. 7, with Secretary Julie Moore saying much of the growth reflects federal pass-through grants for water, wastewater and forest-health work.

The budget matters because nearly three-quarters of ANR’s funding flows through the Department of Environmental Conservation and federal short‑duration grants — from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and ARPA, among others — now make up a large share of the agency’s activity. That has expanded the agency’s capacity for infrastructure investments while shifting the mix of base operating funds and one‑time project money, Moore said.

Moore said the governor’s recommended total is roughly $45 million higher than the prior year, an increase of about 15%, and that roughly 60% of the agency’s budget is now dedicated to grants, contracts and loans to municipalities, partner organizations and businesses. “It has been an incredible opportunity to make some really significant investments in core infrastructure, but it has also not been without its challenges,” Moore said.

Agency staffing currently totals 668 full‑time employees, Moore said, swelling to more than 1,000 in the summer months as seasonal park staff are added. About 30% of ANR’s budget is devoted to salaries and benefits. Moore described vacancy savings and recruitment pressures in engineering, legal and business‑office roles and said the agency typically runs an 8%–10% vacancy rate in normal times.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) accounts for the largest share of the increase, Moore said, because DEC administers water and wastewater grants. She called out the Clean Water Fund, which she said has grown from a few million dollars annually in 2019 to approaching $50 million a year; ANR’s component of that fund was shown in the presentation as about $19 million.

Moore outlined several one‑time investments in the FY 2026 recommendation. The largest is a $10 million commitment for PCB mitigation and remediation in schools where testing has already been completed; about $500,000 of that amount would go to the health department to support staff assisting the effort and the remainder to DEC. Moore said the administration is not proposing new testing this year and that about half of the state’s schools have been tested to date.

DEC also would receive one‑time funds tied to the state’s CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) permitting transition: $850,000 to support CAFO work and an additional $600,000 for contracted support to help build an ANR interface that leverages the Agency of Agriculture’s inspection database. Moore said two new permitting positions are included in the proposal to support inspection of large and medium farms as part of an initial corrective action plan; ANR will report back to EPA at the end of calendar year 2026 on staffing needs.

Other one‑time items: $50,000 to develop standard designs and streamline municipal water and wastewater permit review, and bridge funding for the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). Moore described continuing challenges in DFW’s historic funding model, which relies heavily on hunting and fishing license sales that have declined nationwide. The department has received nearly a 30% increase in general‑fund support over the last three years, Moore said, and ANR will pursue a financial restructuring with recommendations for the governor and Legislature within about a year.

Moore noted several statutory and program obligations that continue to drive ANR’s workload, including implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act (Act 59), new river‑corridor and dam‑safety responsibilities under last year’s Flood Safety Act, the state’s multi‑decade Clean Water Act commitments (including phosphorus reductions for Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog), work under Act 250 modernization, and the state’s climate‑related “make big oil pay” demand letters. She also confirmed ongoing PFAS testing and litigation: the agency is litigating against 3M and DuPont and has identified multiple private wells that exceed current drinking‑water standards after statewide sampling.

Moore said some federal accounts have been temporarily suspended and that ANR is “optimistic that most of them will be restored,” specifically calling out bipartisan infrastructure funds for water and sewer as important and likely to return to service. She cautioned, however, that some other federal forest‑health and adaptation funds may be at higher risk.

No formal committee votes or decisions were recorded during the presentation; members asked technical and policy questions about leasing terms for state ski areas (Moore said leases average “50 or more years”), the scope of CAFO permitting transition, and the durability of funding for fish and wildlife hatcheries, which she said average more than 70 years of age and consume a disproportionate share of general‑fund resources.

Moore closed by listing ANR’s major initiatives and ongoing risks and said the agency will provide more detailed departmental presentations to the committee in subsequent sessions.