The centerpiece of Governor Cuomo\u2019s State of the State address was the call for voters to approve an environmental bond act.\u00a0 Dubbed the \u201cRestore Mother Nature Bond Act,\u201d the governor\u2019s plan proposes that the state borrow $3 billion to address serious environmental problems tied to global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under New York\u2019s Constitution, the state can only undertake direct\nborrowing if the question is put to the voters for approval. Thus, the governor\u2019s proposal would have to\nbe first approved by lawmakers this legislative session and then placed on the\nballot for voter approval this November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor\u2019s plan, details of which are expected to be\nreleased in this week\u2019s budget address, would address environmental problems\nsuch as restoring wetlands, fighting algal blooms, repairing dams, restoring\nfootpaths in the state parks, increasing the use of electric vehicles and\nexpanding recycling programs. These are areas that are sorely in need of\nadditional funding. If the Bond Act is\ndone right, the $3 billion in funding can go a long way toward improving New\nYork\u2019s environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two big questions that New Yorkers should expect\nto have answered before any Bond Act should be approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question #1: How will\nthe money be spent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bond Act proposals rarely are detailed in how they will\nspend the money. Usually accompanying a\nBond Act plan is an agreement \u2013 in law or a legislative understanding with the\ngovernor \u2013 that offers a list of programs that would qualify for funding. But sometimes, the projects turn out to be the\nresult of deal making and have little to do with the purported goal of the Bond\nAct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to ensure that Bond Act spending goes towards the\nmost critical environmental needs, plans for spending should be approved in a\ntransparent manner and should rely on objective, independent, scientific\ncriteria based on the climate crisis needs of the state, not simply because it\nis a pet project of some powerful elected official or special interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to New York managing big pots of money, we\nhave seen bad outcomes in the past. When\nthe state received billions of dollars resulting from litigation with tobacco\ncompanies, some local governments spent the money on purchasing golf carts \u2013\nnot efforts to curb smoking. That should\nnot be allowed to happen with the Bond Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question #2: Who will pay?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Bond Act is a way for the state to borrow a large amount\nof money to meet pressing needs. The\nborrowed money should be used for projects that are expected to last at least the\nlifetime of the borrowing \u2013 usually 30 years. \nThus, spending makes sense for state projects that would protect water\nsupplies. However, it shouldn\u2019t be used\nin ways that enrich real estate developers, for example, at the expense of the\nnatural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter what, the Bond Act will have to be paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now, the assumption is that all New Yorkers will pay\nthe Bond Act back. But why should\nthey? After all, the looming climate\ncatastrophe that created the need to borrow in the first place is the result of\nthe corruption of American politics by oil, coal and gas interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big oil companies have known since the 1970s of the problems\nassociated with the burning of fossil fuels. \nThey knew it would heat up the planet and cause dire change in the\nenvironment. They accurately predicted\nthe timetable in which those changes would occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But instead of being responsible, they used their\nconsiderable clout to lie about the evidence to the public, undermine the\nscience, hire consultants and lobbyists to derail pro-health and environment reforms,\nand shower campaign contributions on those candidates who would do their\nbidding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And they were so successful that the world is on the\nprecipice of global environmental catastrophe. \nIt was their deliberate campaign to corrupt our democracy. Why should we get stuck with the tab?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor and state lawmakers must adhere to the\nprinciple that the polluter is responsible for the mess they created. Governor Mario Cuomo stuck to that principle\nwith the Environmental Bond Act of 1986, which relied heavily on polluters to\npay for the hazardous waste cleanups that were the target of that effort. That formulation was so successful that the\n1986 Bond Act was overwhelmingly approved by voters. New Yorkers should hope the same is true in\n2020: that it will be the oil, gas and\ncoal interests that are on the hook to pay for the mess that they made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How those two questions are answered should guide voters on\nhow to vote this November. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The centerpiece of Governor Cuomo\u2019s State of the State address was the call for voters to approve an environmental bond act.\u00a0 Dubbed the \u201cRestore Mother Nature Bond Act,\u201d the governor\u2019s plan proposes that the state borrow $3 billion to address serious environmental problems tied to global warming. Under New York\u2019s Constitution, the state can only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}