FY2020 Green Budget

A healthy environment supports a healthy economy. Tourism, agriculture, outdoor recreation, the fishing industry, and clean energy all are important job and revenue generators. Environmental agency funding is insufficient to meet demands and growing responsibilities.

• The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) have suffered drastic cuts in recent years and staffing is down 30% compared to a few years ago.
• Many DCR properties are unstaffed or have such minimal staff presence that enforcement, safety, programming, and user experience are being negatively impacted.
• DEP staff is stretched to cover its wide ranging responsibilities. Additional staff are needed to monitor water quality, enforce solid waste bans, and deal with newer issues such as emerging contaminants and climate change regulation.

Priority line-items

• Our Ask: Increase DCR’s State Parks and Recreation line item (2810-0100) by $6Mto $47M (from $40.25M in FY19). Learn more
  FY20 Budget Result: $47.25M
• Increase MassDEP’s Administration line-item (2200-0100) by $2.17M to $31.5M (from $29.13M in FY19). Learn more
  FY20 Budget Result: $32.082M
• Increase the DCR Watershed Management line-item (2800-0101) by $400K to $1.5M (from $1.1M in FY19). Learn more
  FY20 Budget Result: $1.523M
• Increase DER’s budget by $500K to $1.75M (from $1.255M in FY19). Learn more
  FY20 Budget Result: $2.1M