Environmental highlights of the NC House budget, S744

Today the NC House takes up its version of S744, the Appropriations Act of 2014, which would make adjustments to the state budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.  In general, the House budget is much better for the environment than the Senate budget, dropping a number of harmful special provisions and adding a handful of smart expansion items.  Our one-page take on the House budget's environmental highlights is here.

Some environmental implications of the NC Senate budget, S744

Roughly one week ago, just after midnight on Saturday, May 31, the NC Senate gave final approval to its version of S744, the 2014 Appropriations bill.  Environmental spending is just a small part of the $21 billion appropriated budget, which represents roughly half of total state annual spending (the rest takes the form of unappropriated spending from receipts and federal grants).  Still, the budget has significant impacts on North Carolina's environment and public health, both through direct expenditures on state programs, and through 'special provisions' that change state laws and policies in non-monetary ways.

We've put together a short factsheet that highlights some of the most environmentally significant provisions; it's available here.  These include new money for coal ash monitoring and cleanup (conditioned on passage of legislation that hasn't yet been unveiled); dubious spending on exploration and marketing of North Carolina's onshore natural gas; a boondoggle project on the Outer Banks; and cuts in transit and multimodal spending.  We'll be watching closely on these and other issues to see whether the House takes a different approach.