With a week left in the legislative session environmental watchdogs are keeping close tabs on budget dealings at the state capitol and say, for now at least, things aren't looking as bad as they did a few months ago.
In his budget Governor Dannel Malloy proposed eliminating funding for the Council on Environmental Quality, a nine member board with two full-time paid positions that's served as a watchdog and critic of state environmental policy for decades.
Malloy also wanted to move the CEQ out of the executive branch and into the legislative -- a shift environmentalists find problematic.
"They wouldn't be able to give an unbiased view on various environmental issues. They would be too closely tied to the legislature and concerned about political issues," said Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. "Because they are, as an independent agency, at times critical of the administration. We think it's important to have someone who can speak the truth on these environmental issues."
Karl Wagener, the CEQ's executive director, said it's hard to speculate on what the structural shift would mean for the way his group does business, but, for now at least, the legislature's appropriations committee seems to agree with Hammerling. It recommended keeping the CEQ housed within the executive branch and restored the department's funding of approximately $180,000.
Then there's the issue of state parks. Malloy proposed a roughly $2 million cut to that line item. But there too, the legislature is calling for substantially less -- a $100,000 reduction.
Hammerling said there were proposals to supplement state park funding this session, like one from the environment committee to include a $5 "opt out" park donation on registration forms for certain cars and motorcycles. That proposal was dropped on the senate floor.
The numbers could change as budget negotiations continue. The legislative session ends next Wednesday.
