Green Fund Bill Dies on the Vine

by David Bingham, CTCLV Co-Chair (dbbingham@sbcglobal.net)

The Green Fund Bill, despite growing support in the legislature, nevertheless died in the Connecticut General Assembly's Finance Committee when it failed to be raised for a vote before the legislative deadline.

The Green Fund bill would have allowed municipalities, if they chose, to impose a conveyance fee on purchasers of real estate and use the revenue from the fee for conservation projects. The bill passed the Environment Committee with a comfortable 21-6 margin after receiving strong support from a wide spectrum of supporters at public hearing. That vote will likely be scored by the CT League of Conservation Voters. The bill was then referred to the Finance Committee, where it languished for weeks before dying of neglect.

Clearly, the State’s budget deficit (and lack of a budget) are major concerns. Ironically, the Green Fund bill could have provided hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation projects yearly without costing the State a dime. In states where such a local fee is used, it has proven a popular way to fund open space and farmland, especially in expensive real estate markets like Long Island, Block Island and Cape Cod, where sprawl has been eating up remaining rural lands. Thousands of acres have been saved.

Meanwhile, State funding assistance for municipal governments is being cut back, at a time when these budgets are also in crisis. Cutting assistance while failing to provide alternative funding mechanisms is a double-whammy for local communities, which are hard-pressed to find funds for land conservation, brownfield remediation, storm sewer improvements, energy conservation, and air quality projects. Billions of dollars are needed if local conservation goals around the state are to be met, and yet most communities are cutting budgets back and conservation is often the first thing to go. The Green Fund would make a major contribution in reversing that trend.

What now? The push for passage of the Green Fund has grown each year. The time between sessions is when legislators are available to discuss next year's bills. Green Fund supporters hope to organize a forum in the fall to improve grass roots understanding of local conservation funding, and to educate our legislators to the value of the Conveyance fee approach. Hopefully, we can get farmers, builders and realtors from those areas where the legislation has proved popular, to help educate similar groups in Connecticut.

Together with the environmental community and municipal leaders, a powerful coalition is forming, to make it clear to legislators that they cannot be "too busy" to bring a billion-dollar local option Green Fund proposal up for a vote this coming year.

Questions, suggestions and comments should be directed to David Bingham, Co-Chair of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters and CT Sierra Green Fund Coordinator, at dbbingham@sbcglobal.net.