The state legislative sessions: ups and downs   

We have had some significant victories in state legislative sessions so far this spring, but also some setbacks in an extremely difficult political and economic climate. Prospects for funding are grim in several states where legislators have raided conservation funds to plug shortfalls or are using the budget situation to justify an anti-environmental agenda. Please support The Conservation Campaign with your contribution to help us fight back and provide critical funding for conservation.   

Florida legislators appropriated zero funding for the landmark Florida Forever program. In New Hampshire, we are fighting attacks to divert funding from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Fund (LCHIP), the state's sole source of funding to preserve its most important natural, cultural and historic resources.  

But in other states, tenacious conservation advocates and legislators who understand the importance of conservation to their state's future have protected critical conservation funds. Maryland maintained funding for its 40-year-old Program Open Space, and New York kept the Environmental Protection Fund at the previous year's level. In Colorado, full funding was provided for Great Outdoors Colorado, which means that $100 million will be available this year for current land conservation, outdoor recreation, and local matching grant programs. Legislation to increase the state match for the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act has been moving ahead. Its 116 so-sponsors demonstrate strong legislative support.  

The unstoppable Community Preservation Act  

Even in this tough economy, Massachusetts towns continue to support the Community Preservation Act (CPA). On May 7, the small town of Pelham approved a 3 percent CPA surcharge by a 59 percent margin. Pelham joins more than half a dozen of its neighbors in the Connecticut River Valley -- and 147 other municipalities statewide -- in adopting the act to fund open space protection, historic preservation, affordable housing and recreation. The vote creates a local dedicated fund supplemented by state CPA trust fund distributions. 

Meanwhile, at the April Town Meeting in Canton, a community in the greater Boston area, residents voted to put a CPA measure on the municipal ballot for April 2012. Canton voters will then decide on a 1 percent CPA property tax surcharge. To learn more, go to the Community Preservation Coalition, which has a great new website.   

50th anniversary gift for New Jersey's trailblazing Green Acres program

The New Jersey legislature is moving ahead on a package of bills to preserve open space and develop parks using the first half of the funding from the bond act approved by the voters in 2009. The Conservation Campaign sponsored the campaign to pass the $400 million bond. Legislators hope to approve the bills before the session adjourns for the summer.  

The funding comes as New Jersey's Green Acres program celebrates its 50th anniversary. In 1961, residents in what was already a densely populated state had the foresight to approved dedicated funding to conserve land for water quality, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation. Since then, voters have generated $3.1 billion to help preserve 1.2 million acres of open space by passing 13 conservation bond measures. "The idea of using public money to purchase open space and setting it aside for public conservation and recreation in perpetuity was groundbreaking at the time of its inception and remains one of the most enduring and important environmental measures ever undertaken in New Jersey," said Commissioner Bob Martin of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Find out more at the Green Acres website.

In memory of Eugene Lee