For Immediate Release: June 3, 2011
Four More Organizations Join Coalition in Calling for Growing Greener Funding
Support to Restore Funding for Key State Environmental Program Continues to Grow
(HARRISBURG, PA) The Renew Growing Greener Coalition today announced that four more organizations have joined in supporting the effort to restore state funding for Growing Greener.
Delaware Valley Green Building Council (Philadelphia), Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (Havertown), Friends Center (Philadelphia), and Schuylkill River Development Corporation (Philadelphia) have signed the Coalition’s Statement of Support, which calls for the establishment of a dedicated and sustainable source of revenue to support the renewal of Growing Greener. They join more than 280 other organizations and municipalities that have also announced their support for renewing Growing Greener.
“Each week support for the renewal of Growing Greener keeps building. It is more and more apparent that Growing Greener is important to the people of Pennsylvania and must not be ignored, said Andrew Health, executive director of the Renew Growing Greener Coalition. “I am encouraged to see Pennsylvanians continue to urge the state legislature and Governor to take action to ensure that tomorrow’s Pennsylvania is even stronger than today’s.”
Growing Greener is a bipartisan program established in 1999 under Governor Tom Ridge and later expanded by Governors Schweiker and Rendell. Since its establishment, Growing Greener has created a legacy of success, preserving more than 33,700 acres of Pennsylvania’s family farmland, conserving more than 42,300 acres of threatened open space, adding 26,000 acres to state parks and forests, and restoring over 16,000 acres of abandoned mine lands.
In 2002, a dedicated source of revenue for Growing Greener was identified in an increase in the state’s “tipping fee,” the fee charged for dumping trash in Pennsylvania’s landfills. Those funds were supplemented by a $625 million bond approved by voters in 2005, called Growing Greener II. Unless action is taken by the Governor and the Legislature, those funds will be largely exhausted as of June 30th, with most of the Growing Greener I tipping fees going to the debt service on the Growing Greener II bonds.
About the Renew Growing Greener Coalition
The Renew Growing Greener Coalition is the Commonwealth’s largest coalition of conservation, recreation and environmental organizations representing more than 280 organizations and government entities. For more information on the Coalition, visit www.RenewGrowingGreener.org.