Thursday, April 12, 2012

Like being outdoors in PA?

Thanks to BeerTrout for alerting me to this.  Under the proposed budget from Gov. Corbett, PA's land, water, and air are under serious attack.  There has been additional pressure put on our natural resources by the Marcellus Shale fracking, and now there are proposed budget cuts to funding conservation and recreation programs. 



Check out this petition to make your voice heard: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/2012budget

Among the proposed cuts in the budget:
  1. Transferring $30 million from Keystone Recreation, Park, and Conservation Fund to the general fund, which would completely eliminate the KRPCF.
  2. Taking the funds from the state's cigarette sales tax, which has historically been used for farmland preservation, and transferring them to the general fund.  This would be a permanent change that would end the farmland preservation fund unless additional funding was found.
  3. Continue using the Environmental Stewardship Fund to to pay the Growing Greener II bond debt service.  This would leave $23 million for Growing Greener programs and projects, the lowest amount in decades.
If you care at all about being outdoors, whatever your passion is and where ever you live, please sign the petition.  Don't let the government think that we will sit idly by as they try and take away what is important to us.  Once the natural areas are developed, we can't get them back.

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