Action
Alert
New York’s Environmental
Funding is at Risk!
Your Action Is Needed Today!
There is now a real danger
that New York’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) may
not become a reality unless legislative leaders in Albany act
in the coming days.
The Governor, Senate and Assembly
have all agreed to spend a record $200 million on the environment
this year. However, they did not include the EPF in the state
budget that passed at the end of March. Now, differences over
unrelated issues may prevent the EPF from happening at all. This
puts the water quality of the Adirondack Park at risk, as well
as the state’s funding for open space preservation.
The EPF was created in 1993 as
a $30 million dedicated source of annual funding for environmental
programs during good economic times and bad. Since then, the
Fund has grown to last year’s $150 million. It helps to
pay for land acquisition, stewardship of state land, water quality
protection and enhancement, landfill closures, breast cancer
research and numerous other worthwhile environmental projects.
A gap in funding for the protection
of open space, especially large tracts of intact forest land
in the Adirondack Park, could mean we forever lose areas to development.
Other projects in the Adirondack Park, which have already been
announced, such as the International Paper and Domtar land protection
easements may have to be postponed.
The good news is that the
Legislature still has time to get the EPF finished. They have
three weeks until they are scheduled to recess for the remainder
of the year.
Please write to the elected
officials listed below and let them know in your own words:
- You are grateful to them
for proposing to increase the EPF to $200 million this year.
- They must come to an agreement
with the Governor on how to spend the money in the EPF before
June 22nd, the end of the legislative session.
- The EPF should not be used
as a negotiating tool for other unresolved budget issues. It
needs to be completed today, because important environmental
programs cannot go a year without funding.
Please send your letters
to:
The
Honorable Joseph L. Bruno
New York State Senate
Room 909 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(fax) 518-455-2448 |
The
Honorable Sheldon Silver
New York State Assembly
Room 932 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
(fax) 518-455-5459 |
Senator
Carl Marcellino
New York State Senate
Room 812 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(fax) 518-426-6975 |
Assemblyman
Thomas DiNapoli
New York State Assembly
Room 625 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
(fax) 518-455-4921 |
Thank you for taking action to
help save the EPF.
Please send or email us a copy
of your correspondence, if possible. (Address below.)
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