Last week, the State Assembly and State Senate each released their one house budget, which reflects how each house feels about the Governor’s budget proposal as we enter the final stretch of budget negotiations.
The Assembly one house budget maintains the Executive’s proposed $500 million for clean water infrastructure funding, an NYLCV priority. It also increases the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) to $400 million, an increase of $100 million from what the Executive proposed, which is the level the EPF has been funded at for the past several years.
The Senate one house budget also includes $500 million for clean water infrastructure funding and funds the EPF at $300 million. It also authorizes a $3 billion Clean Water, Green Jobs, Green New York Environmental Bond Act, which would fund critically important climate mitigation and resilience efforts around the state. The Senate’s budget also includes legislation to create an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program for packaging waste, one of NYLCV’s top priorities for 2021.
Other parts of the Executive Budget that NYLCV supports, including legislative changes to allow the new Office of Renewable Energy Siting to function as intended and language to clarify the State’s plastic bag ban law, were omitted from the one house budgets but we hope will be included in some form in the final budget agreement, which is due by April 1.