New York State’s
Environmental Protection Fund
An overview
& History
New York State’s environment faces a crisis: for the first time since its creation in 1993, zero funds have been appropriated from New York’s Environmental Protection Fund. The EPF provides a baseline of $125 million per year in critical funding for a variety of open space, parks, and solid waste programs. An additional $40+ million per year from the Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act that previously augmented Environmental Protection Fund Open Space programs is gone. This memo provides an overview of the EPF, along with a description of the many environmental programs that are at risk due to the absence of an EPF budget.
It is important to note three numbers:
· $0 Dollars have been made available from the Environmental Protection Fund this year: The environmental needs of New Yorkers grew after September 11th, yet even the reduced level of dedicated funding available is frozen and has not been made available to meet these needs. The Assembly states that it is prepared to release these funds.
· $125 Million is currently available but unspent: In the time remaining in the current fiscal year Governor Pataki, Senator Bruno, Assemblyman Silver, and the members of the Senate and Assembly can and should negotiate an Environmental Protection Fund appropriations bill that releases the reduced funding level of $125 million that is available.
·
$250 Million
will be available in the Environmental Protection Fund for FY ’03 if no
appropriations are made this year: The
Environmental Protection Fund was created, in 1993, to provide a reliable,
permanent base funding stream – in good fiscal times and bad -- for critical
environmental needs. Under existing
law, between this year and next, a total of $250 million flows into the
fund. The Governor and the Legislature
must not raid the Environmental Protection Fund – and should appropriate the
full $250 million for Environmental Protection Fund clean water, open space,
parks and environmental projects.
The Environmental Protection Fund was enacted in 1993, creating the first-ever permanent dedicated environmental funding mechanism in New York. Under existing law, $125 million of state revenues are automatically deposited into the EPF each year. Over 90% of these revenues are derived from a portion of state’s Real Estate Transfer Tax. Other revenue streams dedicated to the EPF include sources such as income from the sale of surplus state lands, the leasing of underwater state-owned lands, and New York’s “open space” license plate.
The Environmental Protection Fund includes three separate programs (or accounts): the open space program, the parks program, and the recycling and solid waste program. Within these programs, there are a total of twenty specific projects that receive EPF funding each year (see below.) The annual allocation of funds among the three programs and the twenty initiatives is subject to annual negotiation between the Governor and the Legislature.
Although $125 million automatically flows into the Environmental Protection Fund each year, EPF monies can only be spent subject to appropriations made by the Legislature and the Governor. In January 2001, Governor Pataki’s Executive Budget submission proposed increasing the EPF to a new level of $150 million. This increase would fill shortfalls created by the fact that portions of the 1996 Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act (including open space and farmland protection) are now exhausted. In their respective one-house budget resolutions passed in March, both the Senate and Assembly included the $150 million funding level (in fact, the Assembly proposed increasing the EPF to $187.5 million. The Senate proposed $170 million).
However, the EPF was not included in the “baseline” budget adopted by the Legislature in August 2001, nor was it included in the “supplemental” budget approved by the Governor and the Legislature in November. Therefore, the EPF is accumulating a cash balance. The monies are sitting within the fund, unspent while New York faces huge environmental needs.
The Governor and the Legislature should not raid the EPF, this year or next, diverting these monies to program’s that are not authorized within the EPF statute. An EPF raid, in addition to the loss of more than $40 million per year from the Bond Act, would have disastrous consequences for environmental programs, and would destroy forever the “dedicated” nature of the fund.
The Environmental Protection Fund supports a wide variety of vitally-important environmental programs consistent with the Environmental Protection Fund statue.
Please note, the dollar amounts indicated below are for illustrative
purposes only. They reflect the
Governor’s proposed FY 2001-‘02 EPF budget, and are not actual funding levels).
q Open Space Purchases ($60 million). The EPF provides over 90% of the funding available to the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of State Parks to purchase threatened parklands, forests, lakes and rivers, wildlife habitat, urban green spaces, and recreational lands, pursuant to New York’s Open Space Conservation Plan.
q Farmland Protection ($14 million). With Bond Act funds now committed, the EPF is the most significant source of funding still available for New York’s Farmland Protection Program, administered by the Department of Ag & Markets. Applications for farmland grants were received by Ag & Markets last August, but State action has been frozen, due in part to the absence of EPF funding.
q Hudson River Estuary Management ($6 million). The EPF is the sole source of capital funding available to DEC to implement water quality, land protection, habitat stewardship, public recreation, and environmental education initiatives called for in the state’s Hudson River Estuary Plan.
q Non-Point Water Pollution Control ($6 million); Soil and Water Districts ($1.3 million). EPF provides critical funding to enable DEC and County Soil & Water Districts across the state to fund projects that clean up pollution to New York’s lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams, thereby improving the health of New York’s waterways.
q Biodiversity Stewardship & Research ($750,000). The EPF is the sole funding mechanism for the New York Biodiversity Research Institute, which funds projects that improve ecosystem health and protect endangered species.
q Long Island Pine Barrens Commission ($700,000); Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve ($520,000); Albany Pine Bush Commission ($325,000). The EPF supports these Commissions’ with funding for a variety of land stewardship, research, and environmental education initiatives in the Long Island Pine Barrens, the South Shore Estuary Reserve, and the Albany Pine Bush.
q Finger Lakes/Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance ($1 million). The EPF is the only source of state funding to support FL-LOWPA, which undertakes water quality improvement projects in the 25-county region encompassing the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario.
q Municipal Recycling Projects ($4.1 million). The EPF is the sole source of state funding to provide grants to local communities across the state to enhance solid waste recycling efforts, a critical step in the effort to reduce reliance on landfilling of solid waste.
q Secondary Materials Markets Program ($3 million). The EPF provides funds to support this program which provides matching grants to spur the development of secondary markets for recycled materials.
q Pesticide Use Database Program ($2.25 million). The EPF supports this program, including funds for the Pesticide Use Database program and monies that Cornell University uses for the breast cancer research initiative.
q Hudson River Natural Resources Damage Assessment ($1.3 million). These funds are needed to support New York’s effort to pursue payments from corporations that have damaged the Hudson, including General Electric’s release of PCBs, in order to restore environmental health in the river.
q State Lands Stewardship ($10 million). The Environmental Protection Fund provides critically-needed funds to enable New York to improve the management of state-owned lands. The funds support a variety of activities, including the construction of public access facilities on newly purchased lands, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, fish and wildlife habitat management, and Unit Management Planning.
q Local Parks & Historic Preservation Grants ($6 million); Historic Barns ($2 million). The EPF provides roughly half of the annual state funding for the popular Local Parks and Historic Preservation programs, which provide 50% matching grants to local communities and non-profits across the state. The EPF is the sole funding source for the Historic Barns program. The applications for these programs, received in August by the Office of State Parks, sit in limbo a waiting state funding.
q Local Waterfront Revitalization Grants ($6 million). This program, administered by the Department of State, provides matching grants to waterfront communities across the state.
q Hudson River Park Construction ($20 million). The EPF provides the bulk of the funding for the future development and construction of the Hudson River Park, located on the west side of Manhattan.
New York’s environment faces a crisis. Since 1993, the Environmental Protection Fund has provided a permanent, dedicated stream of funding to support critical clean water, clean air, open space, solid waste, parks and environmental programs across the state. For the first time ever, however, New York has appropriated zero funding from the EPF. And the Bond Act funds are spent. The environmental community’s position is simple:
1. Governor Pataki, Senator Bruno, Assemblyman Silver, and the members of the Senate and Assembly should immediately negotiate an Environmental Protection Fund appropriations bill that releases the $125 million that is currently sitting, available but unspent, in the EPF. These funds should be released in the time that remains in the current fiscal year.
2. The Governor and the Legislature must enact a fully-funded EPF for the fiscal year that begins April 1, 2002. The EPF was created, in 1993, to provide a reliable, permanent funding stream – in good fiscal times and in bad -- for critical environmental programs. The Governor and the Legislature must not raid the Environmental Protection Fund– but rather must fully appropriate the moneys that are dedicated to these key environmental programs.
The environmental community understands the need for New York to respond to the September 11th attack on New York City, and the downturn in state tax revenues, is placing significant stress on the state budget. The proposed release of the $125 million represents a funding level cut of 25% from the effective level of funding that existed when the EPF was augmented by the Bond Act. And while recent events do require budget changes, these events do not mean that New York should step back from its commitment to protect the health of the environment by raiding and zeroing out the Environmental Protection Fund on top of other cuts. To the contrary, at a time when people in New York and around the country are working hard to move forward and to improve the safety and quality of their communities, the State’s commitment to New Yorker’s clean air, clean water, open spaces, parks, and the environment is critical.
Click here to see the list of organizations that support the Environmental Protection Fund.
01/14/02