Funding for CT DEP

Advocacy Special Focus: Funding for Our State Parks, Forests and Natural Resources through the CT Department of Environmental Protection

A combination of State and Federal laws provide the context in which natural resources are protected, or not, in Connecticut.  Today, despite the numerous environmental laws "on the books", the funding necessary to protect, maintain, and enforce these laws and the natural resources that depend upon them is sadly lacking.  Fundamental to CFPA's conservation agenda is to ensure adequate state funding to sustain a "fully functional" CT DEP.

While constraints on the State budget are understandable, the funding needs for the CT DEP are compelling:

• Connecticut spends less than a quarter of 1% of the State's budget on the DEP. Other states in the region spend 2.5 to 6 times that percentage;
• Connecticut spends fewer tax dollars (adjusted for inflation) on the DEP today than it did when the agency was created in 1972;
• The DEP has the same number of employees that it did in 1988, though the pressures for timely permit review and resource protection have grown precipitously; and
• The DEP estimates that its capital needs to maintain its state park and forest infrastructure will cost about $250 million over the next 10-12 years. If these funds aren't realized, we will all experience a diminishment of our state's recreational and outdoor amenities. One might imagine that some state beaches would be closed on weekends due to inadequate resources, for example.

For CFPA's 2008 Environmental Agenda, click here.  For additional information about CFPA's Legislative Agenda, please contact Executive Director Eric Hammerling at ehammerling "at" ctwoodlands.org or by phone at (860) 346-2372.