NC Senate budget slashes funding for environmental programs

May 15, 2017
The NC Senate rolled out its budget for the 2017-2018 biennium last night (Tuesday, May 9).
 
Despite a projected $580 million state budget surplus, the Senate leadership has put forward a budget that, instead of restoring past cuts, would further slash positions and programs at the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. This continues a pattern in place since 2011.
 
The Senate budget as proposed would hit DEQ regional offices and the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service (formerly, Division of Pollution Prevention) especially hard. The regional offices have already been significantly cut in recent years, reducing water resources and water quality staff by 41 percent. The Senate budget would take another 14 positions out of the regional offices. It is unclear which programs would be affected.
 
In addition, the budget would slash funding for waste reduction and recycling programs that help NC businesses save money and avoid regulatory burdens while reducing environmental impacts, eliminating 32.5 positions from what was formerly known as the Division of Pollution Prevention.
 
The budget also eliminates certain senior level management positions at DEQ.
 
Policy provisions of concern include:
  • - A 3.5 year moratorium on wind energy development, long sought by Senate Majority leader Harry Brown.
  • - Provisions to direct how the Cooper administration spends an anticipated $92 million in funds from the Volkswagen Settlement. Although the first step in the process by which the settlement funds will be distributed to states has not yet been put into place, the Senate’s budget attempts to inappropriately constrain use of the funds. The settlement funds that will come to the state are expressly intended to reduce diesel NOx emissions. No committee in either chamber has been briefed on the Volkswagen settlement.

The NC Sierra Club responded to today’s rollout of the Senate’s proposed budget with the following statement:

"The Senate’s proposed budget takes aim yet again at North Carolina’s environmental programs, following severe cuts in the previous six years. Not content with passing bills to roll back water quality protections, the Senate appears determined to also eliminate non-regulatory programs that help business and industry reduce waste. Those programs save money, reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and protect the environment.

"The Senate’s budget is particularly troubling at a time when there is widespread concern about proposed cuts to federal funding for land, water and air quality programs by the Trump administration.

"The budget also includes environmental policy changes that would be unlikely to pass as stand-alone legislation."