Governor Cooper Submits Budget Prioritizing the Environment; Legislature Heads in Opposite Direction

The NC General Assembly returned to Raleigh for the “short” or “budget” session last week, and two developments stood out for the environment during their first week back.

First, Governor Roy Cooper submitted his annual state budget adjustments proposal to the General Assembly. The Cooper budget includes a combination of investments in the clean energy economy, land and water conservation funds, climate resiliency, and toxic water pollution control that qualify it as a notably “green” budget. Specific recommended items include an additional $32 million each for the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and the Land and Water Fund, supporting his 2024 Executive Order 305 goals of conserving one million acres of natural lands with a special focus on wetlands, restoring one million acres of forests and wetlands, and planting one million trees, all by 2040. 

Overall, the Cooper budget allocates $148 million for land and water conservation and resiliency work in FY25, plus $100 million to the Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to help communities meet new federal standards on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, and fill gaps in federal funding for remediation work.

In Contrast, Negative News from the Pro-Polluter Leadership in the NC House

What was originally a one-page Senate bill dealing with a technical plumbing code change exploded in House committee into a 73-page substitute package of legal changes for the benefit of corner-cutting developers (SB 166, “2024 Building Code Regulatory Reform”). “The bill is Rep. Mark Brody’s (R-Union) vehicle to once again rewrite the building code and regulatory requirements on developers, a proposal vocally supported by the North Carolina Home Builders Association. Among many other provisions, the bill alters the state’s Building Code Council to have fewer members overall and fewer members appointed by the governor,” explained Grady O’Brien in the NC Conservation Network’s legislative update email (5/3/24). 

This dynamic of strongly positive proposals from Governor Cooper and cascading negative ones from the pro-polluter legislative leadership is not new. However, it’s worth underscoring as this election year continues with control of both branches of state government at stake. We are working hard to elect environmental champs, like Josh Stein, to state leadership. Join us in this work.