State budget brings more deep cuts to NY Conservation Department
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget plan, which will be formally unveiled at 2pm, tags New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation for cuts approaching 17% of the agency’s total budget.
In all, roughly $167 million dollars will be slashed. According to the Cuomo administration, the cuts are triggered by the end of Federal stimulus programs paid for by the Obama administration.
The “DEC reduction is due to the completion of spending in 2011-12 related to the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) program,” state officials say.
This follows several years of deep cutbacks in DEC staff and spending.
State officials say they also plan to use the Conservation Fund to pay for the salaries of roughly 65 environmental conservation officers in the DEC’s ranks, with a cost of $2.3 million.
The governor has allocated more than $70 million from the Environmental Protection Fund to pay for open space protection programs. It’s unclear whether that will include land acquisitions in the Adirondack or Catskill parks.
Tags: economy, environment, politics
“State officials say they also plan to use the Conservation Fund to pay for the salaries of roughly 65 environmental conservation officers in the DEC’s ranks, with a cost of $2.3 million.”
…this will upset some but I like it. Innovative thinking in a time of economic crisis. I would rather this then lose the officers.
“According to the Cuomo administration, the cuts are triggered by the end of Federal stimulus programs paid for by the Obama administration.”
I guess Obama didn’t “create or save” jobs beyond the period of the stimulus. What a loser.
The word is stimulus. Not sustain.
This is why APA oversight of Foxman’s project in Tupper Lake is so important because any that the DEC was intended to provided is being gutted by Gov. One Percent.
So when is Cuomo going to throw his hat in the ring to become the Republican candidate for President?
Ahh so if Obama had continued the Stimulus indefinitely, JDM would’ve cheered… heh yea right. Some people while whine all day about the bright sun and then at night, whine about the darkness.
Brian MOFYC: “Ahh so if Obama had continued the Stimulus indefinitely, JDM would’ve cheered”
No. How can you deduce that from my comment?
The supposed purpose of stimulus is not to provide a continuous funnel of money year-after-year. It is to “jump start” the economy, thereby creating sustainable employment from a “one time” injection of money.
It is now apparent that our inept president, Obama, had no clue how to properly inject money into our economy.
Jobs were created that were directly funded with no hope of sustainability.
That is also why our Obama went back for Stimulus II in the fall of 2011. Realizing that he had nothing to stimulate the economy, he had to ask for continual funding of his losing plan.
Other press reports state that NYSDEC comes out of the budget process relatively unchanged? Environmental groups are generally happy?