After nearly two years of environmental advocacy, PennEnvironment helped to convince Pennsylvania’s legislators to put forth a statewide ballot initiative asking voters to approve $625 million in conservation funding for the state’s cornerstone environmental programs.

If approved by voters on May 17, the proposal would fund open space protection, preservation of Pennsylvania’s family farms and restoration of the state’s most polluted waterways.

“This is a huge step for Pennsylvania’s environment,” said PennEnvironment Director David Masur. “The Legislature and Gov. Rendell deserve credit for this bipartisan effort. Because Pennsylvanians care so much about our environment, I am confident that voters will approve this proposal on May 17th.”

While the state’s environmental programs have been incredibly successful, they haven’t kept pace with open space losses and waterways that remain degraded from generations of mining activity and other pollution. Recent studies have shown that for every acre of open space that is protected under the state’s conservation programs, three acres are paved over by overdevelopment. Furthermore, while the Growing Greener program has helped to restore more than 500 miles of contaminated streams, more than 10,000 miles of waterways in the Commonwealth are too polluted for fishing and swimming.

“PennEnvironment’s members and activists deserve a lot of credit for helping make this proposal come one step closer to reality,” Masur noted. “They sent more than 10,000 e-mails to their legislators, made more than 5,000 phone calls to elected officials and delivered more than 100,000 fact sheets to educate citizens about this proposal.”

PennEnvironment called upon its supporters to vote “Yes” on the May 17 primary ballot initiative.

Timeline for a victory

Starting in 2004, the legislative effort began to increase conservation funding for Pennsylvania’s environment. Below is a timeline of important milestones in the process to increase environmental
funding in Pennsylvania.

2/3/2004—Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell makes his 2004-2005 budget address, announcing his Growing Greener II initiative, calling on the state Legislature to increase funding for the state’s environmental programs by $800 million.

2/3/2005—The Pennsylvania state House of Representatives introduces House Bill 2, which would allow voters to approve an $800 million increase in funding for farmland and open space preservation and waterway restoration.

2/15/2005—The state House passes House
Bill 2 with a bipartisan vote of 183-12.

4/12/2005—After reducing House Bill 2’s funding for conservation programs from $800 million to $625 million, the Pennsylvania state Senate passes House Bill 2 by a vote of 46-1.

4/13/2005—Governor Rendell signs House Bill 2 into law, asking voters to approve $625 million for the state’s cornerstone environmental programs. Voters will be able to approve this proposal on Pennsylvania’s May 17th primary election ballot.

PennEnvironment’s David Masur speaks at a press conference with Gov. Rendell in support of conservation funding.