PA Environment Digest

The Renew Growing Greener Coalition announced this week nine more organizations and municipalities have joined in supporting the effort to restore state funding for Growing Greener.

Neighborhood Bike Works (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation Association (Statewide), Philagreen Hospitality Association (Philadelphia), and Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (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 200 other organizations and groups that have also announced their support for renewing Growing Greener.

In addition, the following county and municipalities join at least 80 other Pennsylvania municipalities and counties that have passed resolutions urging the Governor and legislature to renew Growing Greener funding: Indiana County; London Britain Township, Chester County; Malvern Borough, Chester County; Pocopson Township, Chester County; and West Brandywine Township, Chester County

“Support for the renewal of Growing Greener keeps building, and reaches all four corners of the state,” said Andrew Health, executive director of the Renew Growing Greener Coalition. “Pennsylvanians continue to urge the state legislature and Governor to take action to ensure that future generations have access to clean drinking water, fresh air and green open spaces.”

Growing Greener is a bipartisan program established in 1999 under Gov. 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 Gov. Corbett 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.

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.

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