Preserving Massachusetts News

Massachusetts Parks One Step Closer to Gaining Critical Funding

Boston- Late last night the Environmental Bond (now bill H5005) was passed by the House. During his speech introducing the bill, Representative Frank Smizik, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, expressed his appreciation to the Coalition for the Environmental Bond, a coalition of over 260 organizations and businesses across the state, including Environment Massachusetts, that have been working for the bill's passage.

The environmental bond bill would provide needed capital funding to many critical environmental programs across the state, from dam removal to open space preservation to funding for our maintenance and resource protection in our state parks and forests.  "We've long known that our treasured public lands have been starved for the funding they need to do even the most necessary maintenance" said Winston Vaughan, Field Organizer for Environment Massachusetts.  "The bond bill won't solve all the problems that have stemmed from decades of underfunding, but it will provide more funding for these places that do so much to improve our quality of life."

The Environmental Bond bill now heads to the Senate, it must clear the senate and conference committee before the end of the legislative session on July 31st.  "The funding in this bill is crucial for so many important environmental programs across the commonwealth, we urge the Senate to act quickly to get it in the Governor's desk and get money to the folks who are doing critical work on the ground to improve our environment" concluded Vaughan.

For more information visit the coalition for the environmental bond at : http://www.envirobond.org/

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Environment Massachusetts is a statewide, citizen based environmental advocacy organization with 25,000 members across Massachusetts.