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June 11, 2008

House panel removes $35M environment bond issue

PROVIDENCE -- The House Finance Committee this afternoon effectively cut a proposed $35 million environmental bond issue from the state’s 2009 budget.

The money had been targeted for saving farmland and open space, cleaning up storm water and helping communities reduce the nitrogen their sewer plants discharge into Narragansett Bay.

The bond item was removed from the budget without comment, and the committee approved the budget article that had contained the bond without comment.

The panel is voting a House budget proposal unveiled today, which differs from that submitted previously by Governor Carcieri.

Save The Bay executive director Curt Spalding said the cuts were troubling because the governor had originally wanted $87 million for the Bay bond, and reduced that figure to $35 million because of the state’s budget problems.

“My big problem is we tried to work with the situation,” Spalding said. “Our good will, trying to figure a compromise, it was ignored. No other programs were cut like this.”

The new budget proposal still must be vetted by the full House, and then the Senate. It is also subject to the governor's approval or veto.

-- Journal environment writer Peter Lord

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:16 PM | Permalink

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