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.

FY26 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.

In the face of federal headwinds, the Green Budget Coalition worked with the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Legislature to secure wins for three of our six priorities for FY26, prioritizing targeted growth even under a challenging budget environment.