Securing the Green Budget
Decarbonizing our economy, protecting our natural resources, and supporting healthy communities requires state agencies that are well-resourced and well-staffed. While the need for their services has grown, our environmental agencies have suffered from decades of significant and sustained underfunding. Many departments still receive less funding and maintain lower staff levels than before the Great Recession. In FY25, these items received a $12.9 million total increase in funding, or 2.6%, while the overall budget grew 3.0%. Additional funding will support public parks and open spaces that are invaluable to our communities as well as the tourism, agriculture, outdoor recreation, fishing, and clean energy industries that are creating jobs and economic growth.
We at ELM advocate for:
- Providing sufficient and sustained funding for environmental agencies to meet the scope and scale of our climate, conservation, and adaptation challenges.
- Increasing resources for the state agencies overseeing climate and clean energy action to ensure that Department of Public Utilities (DPU), Department of Energy Resources (DOER), and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) are adequately staffed to facilitate our net-zero transformation.
FY27 Green Budget Priorities
As leaders of the Green Budget Coalition, ELM and the ELM Action Fund aim to ensure that our Commonwealth’s state agencies are properly staffed and resourced to implement policies that decarbonize our economy, protect our natural resources, and preserve public health.
The Green Budget Coalition has identified the following priorities for inclusion in the FY27 state operating budget. These recommendations seek to maintain staff and services at FY26 levels, while providing the resources necessary to ensure the Commonwealth continues to serve local needs and comply with new statutory obligations. Inclusion of these priorities would reflect a 3.5% increase, on average, for these line
items.
- $55,341,535 for the Department of Environmental Protection ($1,611,889 increase over FY26
- $117,803,751 for parks and recreation ($3,983,702 increase over FY26)
- $5,506,476 for the Division of Ecological Restoration ($162,953 increase, level funding with FY25)
- $20,584,461 for administration of the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs ($835,426 increase over FY26)
- $19,361,051 for the Department of Public Utilities ($731,602 increase over FY26)
- $7,210,751 for the Department of Energy Resources ($288,370 increase over FY26)
