Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioner Ed Mascharka, who is responsible for Butler County, says financial difficulties and volatile decisions have placed the department's future in political peril.

After 13 years of financial decline and no fishing license fee increase to draw new revenue, the board of commissioners voted in September to reduce spending by $2 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which begins July 1, if no additional revenues are received.

Among employee layoffs, John Arway, the commission's executive director, decided to close three hatcheries, which turned out to be in the districts of lawmakers who opposed raising fishing license fees.

Mascharka said Arway's decision on how to to make up for the $2 million deficit from last year was poor.

“That was his decision on how to do that,” he said. “Not ours (the commissioners).”

In addition to Butler County, Mascharka oversees District 1 which includes counties in the northwest corner of the state.

A few months later the state Senate voted to limit the term of Arway and any future director to eight years. The House tabled the bill, Senate Bill 935, on March 13.

Arway's eight-year anniversary with the department was in early March.

Senators Scott Hutchison, R-21st, Donald White, R-41st, and Elder Vogel, R-47th, all voted in favor of limiting the term of the director.

A full story appears in Friday's Butler Eagle.