Adirondack Council gauging support for new environmental bond act
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December 31, 2015
Adirondack Council will be gauging support of legislators in the 2016 session for long-term state borrowing for environmental projects after a recent survey by a coalition of environmental groups found 70 percent of respondents would vote in favor of a $5 billion environmental bond act referendum, said John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council.
Other groups in the coalition are Open Space Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and The Trust for Public Land.
“We did not immediately go out and urge that happen,” Sheehan said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “But we wanted to present that information because it’s been 20 years since the last one, and it we think it might time for that to be back on the table for discussion.”
Other Adirondack Council priorities for the legislative session are as follows:
• Fully fund Environmental Protection Fund at $300 million
• Increase budget for staff at state Adirondack Park Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation
• Expand tax abatement program for private forestry property
• State funding to assist Adirondack municipalities with water and sewer infrastructure.
“We know that the park’s infrastructure is old compared with the rest of the country, and that we have small towns with not very large tax bases that really can’t afford the multi-million dollar prices tags that are being put in front of them for mandated work,” he said
