This Thursday is the deadline for NYS legislators to vote on the budget, and we want to make sure that protection for our wetlands, our air and our water, is included in this years budget!

We urgently need your help to make sure elected leaders prioritize the modernization of our state’s wetlands protection program, and invest in other environmental programs that will clean up pollution and protect our parklands.  Elected leaders in Albany are in the final days of negotiations for the next New York State budget, with Thursday, March 31st as the deadline. In decades of advocating for these changes, we’ve never come so close before. Both the Governor and Senate put reforms in their respective budgets, and the Assembly just released their proposal last Wednesday night. We need your help to ensure these reforms stay in the budget, where our leverage is strongest.
Please send a message today to Governor Hochul and your state representatives in Albany. Tell them you want them to seize the opportunity to protect 1 million acres of vital wetlands, including tens of thousands of acres in the Hudson Valley. It would also create a new opportunity to protect smaller wetlands, which provides much needed habitat for animals and plants, while filtering out pollutants and absorbing floodwaters. It also enhances our ability to protect drinking water at its source, and build local resilience in the face of the twin global crises of climate disruption and ecological collapse.
Please take action today

The proposals we are looking to support are:

• At least $4 billion for the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act, which would be the largest ballot measure in state history. If enacted by voters this November, these funds would reduce pollution, advance environmental justice, conserve natural resources, expand renewable energy and build New York’s resilience to climate-fueled natural disasters.
 
• $400 million for the Environmental Protection Fund, New York’s dedicated source of funding for a huge range of critical environmental programs, including those that safeguard clean air and water, conserve family farms and protect the state’s parklands.

• An additional $500 million for clean water projects, which would add to an existing $4 billion water quality program, as well as increased funding for New York’s state parks as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation.
 
• A reform of New York’s woefully inadequate and outdated wetland protections. Healthy wetlands protect communities by filtering pollutants in our water and by serving as a natural buffer against flooding. If included in the final state budget, this reform would strengthen protections for hundreds of thousands of acres which are currently at high risk.

This moment is a crucial opportunity to ensure that all of these proposed investments are included in the final state budget by Thursday, March 31. We can’t afford to miss it. Will you stand with us? Write to Governor Hochul and New York’s s legislative leaders now!
 

Please sign this letter TODAY and let the Governor know how important this issue is to all of us!!

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