"PARK DEAL WILL HURT COLUMBIA COUNTY"

Mike McCagg

ccSCOOP News

06-01-10 - 1:45 p.m. - The deal that led to the Memorial Day opening of state parks and historic sites will have an adverse impact on county conservation programs, officials said.

The agreement—reached on Friday—called for the use of $80 million of funds set to go into the state’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) for other purposes, including $6 million to fund the operation of the shuttered parks and campgrounds.

“We went into the year expecting some level of cuts due to the budget deficit . . . but the cuts to the EPF are disproportionate to the other cuts in the state,” said Andy Bicking of Scenic Hudson.

Created in 1993, the EPF is funded through real estate transfer tax revenues. It is supposed to be used to fund capital projects, such as state parkland acquisitions and landfill closures, as well as to pay for recycling programs, water-quality projects, farmland protection, and other earth-friendly initiatives. The $134 million fund has been cut 37 percent in the past year and has been slashed by $500 million over the past eight years.

Bicking, director of public policy for the Poughkeepsie-based organization, told ccSCOOP that the EPF has already seen massive funding reductions, such as a $3 million cut over the last two years to the EPF’s funding of the Hudson River Estuary Program. “This is going to have a big impact on the region. I know the program managers are figuring out what they are going to do with $3 million,” said Bicking. The Estuary Program, he said, works to ensure clean water, protect and restore fish, wildlife and their habitats, provide water recreation and river access, and conserve viewsheds.

Also impacted by the cuts in EPF funds will be the farmland protection program, which provides grants to purchase conservation easements, as well as develop farmland protection plans. “The farmland protection program has already been cut significantly . . . the level of funding for the farmland protection program right now means we are not going to have any new farmlands protected,” Bicking said.

Alison Jenkins, fiscal policy program director for Environmental Advocates of New York, said the deal reached between Paterson and lawmakers places the environment at risk. "What he is doing is raiding the Environmental Protection Fund to try to take the blame off of himself and put it on the legislature."   The deal, which restored $11 million in funding to the state park system, followed a month in which more than sixty state parks and campgrounds were closed or saw reduced services. Locally, the Olana State Historic Site was facing reduced hours by as a result of the lost state funds.(The Olana Partnership had offered to subsidize the site's operations this year to maintain the current six-day-a-week tour schedule, Partnership President Sarah Griffen previously told ccSCOOP).

The future of the Clermont State Historic Site was also tied to the use of EPF funds.

Bicking said he spent the past five to six months advocating for continued access to the state parks and other means could have been used by state officials to keep the parks open without mortgaging the state’s environmental future. “The parks are open and that is a very important service that is provided to the residents of the state, but what we are missing out on is the opportunity to make advancements to [protect the environment],” he said.