The other day, Audubon New York sent out a press release warning that
language in the state budget may cause the state to lose some federal
conservation funding.
The state might have to forfeit $20 million worth of federal conservation
funding if the state legislature doesn’t fix the issue by the end of the
session, says the Audubon release. Well, today is the last day of the session.
And legislators haven’t introduced any legislation to correct the issue, says
Sean Mahar, Audubon’s director of government relations.
The issue at hand is fund sweeps and transfers. In his budget proposal
earlier this year, Governor Cuomo included language that would let him move
money between agencies and authorities without the legislature’s approval. The
final budget passed by the legislature included that authority, though in a
scaled-back version.
The budget authorizes sweeps and transfers from special revenue accounts,
including the state Conservation Fund, which holds revenues from fishing and
hunting licenses. Audubon’s press release says that the state is required to
put up matching funds for the federal conservation programs, and that the
state’s share comes from the Conservation Fund. The federal government is
already withholding its funding, which goes toward wildlife management area
maintenance, wetland habitat restoration and mapping, and fisheries research.
Fund sweeps have long been a sore issue with environmentalists. Republican
and Democratic governors have pulled money from the Environmental Protection
Fund to close budget gaps; the Adirondack Council says almost $450 million has
been swept from the fund in the past six years. The money is supposed to be
used for environmental, open space, and recycling projects, as well as landfill
closures.
This article appears in Bye bye unions?.
