ADIRONDACK CONSERVATION
GROUP TO CALL ON LEGISLATURE
NOT TO RAID ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUND
Governor’s Plan Calls for Removing $100 Million From
$250 Million Slated for Environmental Capital Projects;
Six-Year Loss Would Exceed $420 Million Dollars
Read the Council's Budget Testimony
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Monday, February 11, 2008
ALBANY, NY – In testimony
before the NYS Legislature’s joint budget hearing panel
tomorrow, the Adirondack Council will call on Legislative leaders
to amend Governor Spitzer’s
budget plan, which calls for removing $100 million from the state’s
largest environmental fund
and diverting the money to non-environmental spending.
The Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) was due to receive $250
million in automatic
state funding this year. The EPF is used for large, one-time
spending projects including landfill
closure, recycling facilities, public land purchases, conservation
agreements with private
landowners, parks, and historic preservation.
“The Adirondack Council strongly opposes the Governor’s
proposed $100 million dollar
‘sweep’ from the EPF to the General Fund,” said
Adirondack Council Legislative Director Scott
Lorey. “The EPF was created by the Legislature to be used
for the express intent of
environmental protection and the protection of public health.
This raid on the dedicated fund is
contradictory to the Legislature’s intent for creating it.
“The Governor’s plan would remove 40 percent of the
Environmental Protection Fund
and divert it to non-environmental areas of the state budget,”
continued Lorey. “The fund is set
to receive $250 million this year, and $300 million from next
year onward. But it often takes
more than one fiscal year to get grant money to deserving recipients
or close a complex land deal. Under this plan, any leftover cash
would be diverted into the general fund, where it could be spent
on anything – anything but the environment.”
“We do not want to seem ungrateful for the $66 million set
aside within this year’s EPF
for the acquisition of public lands and development rights,”
Lorey explained. “But we
respectfully point out that there are more than $200 million
dollars’ worth of high-priority forestlands available in
the Adirondack Park alone. These are lands long-identified as
deserving of state protection.
“Private land-saving organizations are straining to keep
up with the task of acquiring the
highest priority lands and waters on the state’s behalf
and have committed a huge portion of their resources to projects
that are well-known to the state,” Lorey added. “At
least four major
commercial timberland owners have placed their entire holdings
on the market. All four –
Lassiter, Clerical Medical, Finch Pruyn & Co., and Boeselager
-- own lands listed in the NYS
Open Space Conservation Plan.
“That is not all,” Lorey said. “For example, there
is a several-mile stretch of the Moose
River in Lewis County that has been awaiting a check from the
state for six years. It would make a wonderful addition to the
Forest Preserve and to the Town of Lyonsdale’s camping,
boating and tourism attractions. But it remains in the hands
of National Grid for want of $1 million from the EPF. The deal
was arranged as part of a settlement with the NYS Public Service
Commission in 2001.”
Lorey also pointed to the state’s commitment to purchase
110,000 acres of land and
development rights from Domtar Industries, which was announced
in 2004. He said it appeared
that nearly one-third of this year’s $66-million allocation
for land acquisition statewide would be
spent to complete this overdue agreement alone.
“It is plain to see that every cent of the Environmental
Protection Fund is needed for
projects that are in urgent need of attention,” Lorey concluded.
“I am certain that local
government officials will concur that their needs for funding
in landfill closure, recycling and
local parks are no less pressing. Please make sure that the EPF
is fully funded to at least $250
million for this year, and to at least $300 million in 2009 and
onward.”
Fund Has Been Swept Enough Already
From 1993 through 2001, any unspent EPF money remained in the
fund for the following
year. During the final years of the Pataki Administration, it
became a routine, though
unwelcome, practice to remove millions of dollars a year from
the fund to help balance the rest of the budget. The current
plan calls for a sweep of available cash to a level that hasn’t
been seen
since the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, when $235 million
in cash was removed from the fund and has never been returned.
“The EPF was designed to provide dedicated, stable funding
for projects related to the
environment during good financial times and bad,” concluded
Lorey. “You (the Legislature)
have done a tremendous job increasing the fund during good times.
Now we are counting on you to protect the protection fund during
lean fiscal times.”
During its testimony, the Council will also call on the Legislature
to pass an expansion of
the “bottle bill,” a measure to help reduce litter
across the state and throughout the Adirondack
Park; restore funding for invasive species and stewardship programs;
add Lands & Forests staff at DEC; and accept the Governor’s
proposal to provide a small increase to the Adirondack Park
Agency so that it can purchase new fleet vehicles, attract a
new executive director and update its computer network system.
The Adirondack Council is an environmental research, education
and advocacy
organization dedicated to ensuring the wild character and ecological
integrity of the 9,300-squaremile Adirondack Park. The Council
is entirely privately funded and doesn’t accept public or
taxpayer-funded donations of any kind.
Founded in 1975, the organization is headquartered in the Adirondack
hamlet of Elizabethtown and maintains a government/media relations
office in Albany. Thousands of Council members are Adirondack
landowners and taxpayers, although the organization’s members
hail from all 50 United States and four continents.
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