Unlike Wisconsin and other Republican-led States that are using slash and burn tactics to balance their state budgets, New York is demonstrating that it can be done in a fair and balanced manner, according to the New York League of Conservation Voters.
The New York Legislature approved a new budget on Thursday that "recognizes the importance of clean air and water to the state’s health and economic future," the group said in its blog.
For the first time in several years, NY has an on-time budget. Also for the first time years, it largely maintained funds for the environment.
Governor Cuomo and lawmakers reached an agreement that holds steady the state’s Environmental Protection Fund at $134 million and maintains staff at the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, at least for now.
The $132.5 billion budget holds the Environmental Protection Fund steady at $134 million–the same amount as last year and the same as the governor had proposed in his budget.
The budget also maintains staff at the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation and it does not attempt to bring the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative onto the state’s annual budget books–where NYLCV said it almost certainly would have been cut to pay for other programs.
The budget does not include a provision to rollback a clean air law passed last year that would have allowed continued use of dirty heating oil, and it also provides operating support to transit systems totaling $4.2 billion.
The MTA will receive $3.8 billion and other transit systems will receive $401 million. Cash support for both MTA and non-MTA programs will increase year-to-year.
On the other hand, critics say the Democratically run state cut education and health care programs instead of raising taxes.
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