Please call your state senator today, preferably now, and urge them to support the pending Killion amendment to SB 575: A02156.
First and foremost, the pending Killion amendment will stop the practice of using Environmental Stewardship Fund monies to pay the debt service on the Growing Greener 2 bonds issued during the Rendell administration. This will free up $26 million annually for new projects that can be funded by ESF.
Demand for Environmental Stewardship Fund investments hugely exceeds funding availability. Senator Killion’s pending amendment takes a small but important step in boosting ESF’s ability to fund projects in communities across the commonwealth.
Check out today’s Growing Greener Coalition letter to Pennsylvania Senators on this subject.
Why act today? Because the vote is expected today.
Why a pending amendment? It’s because the amendment hasn’t been formally introduced but is informally available. You can find its content here. (There’s another Killion amendment—officially published—with different content that’s not of consequence, which potentially could cause confusion for some.)
The Killion amendment also makes a few tweaks to the Environmental Stewardship Fund supported by the Coalition: one, ensuring that increased ESF investments channeled through DCNR go to both state parks and forests and community grants on a 50/50 basis; and two, providing a pathway to leverage untapped federal tax incentives and private philanthropy for farmland preservation while increasing funding levels for county programs (by allocating a small portion of ESF to privately initiated agricultural conservation easements).
