ELM Home

Collaborative

Issues

Jobs and Volunteering

Join/Donate

Activist Tools

Links

Directions

Earth Night

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:	CONTACT:
October 3, 2002	Ed Coletta 617-292-5737

BOSTON - Major budget cuts at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have resulted in the layoff of 50 DEP employees today. Since last November, the cuts have totaled nearly $12 million, or 17 percent of the department's operating budget.

This is the first major layoff for DEP, the state's primary environmental regulatory agency, in its 26-year history.

The layoffs and budget reductions will have a direct impact on the department's ability to protect public health and the environment, impairing environmental compliance and enforcement efforts, delaying the handling of permits, and drastically reducing technical assistance provided to municipalities and community groups.

Making layoffs a last resort, DEP instituted numerous cost-saving measures and offered a voluntary furlough program to all employees. Nine-hundred-and-seven DEP workers - more than 80 percent of the staff - volunteered for an average of two weeks of unpaid furlough. The effort resulted in a savings of nearly $2 million in the current fiscal year budget and the avoidance of at least 40 additional layoffs.

DEP provides statewide benefits to every citizen as a result of the department's efforts to clean the air, ensure clean drinking water and clean up hazardous waste sites. Yet very little of DEP's budget comes from state tax revenues. The department receives less than $15 million of its $56 million total budget from state tax revenue. DEP depends primarily on dedicated sources of revenue, such as fees and fines imposed on those who violate environmental regulations and unclaimed deposits on beverage containers. # # #