Legislative Watch: “A Monument to Bad Management”

The ability of the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to protect clean air and water took another gut punch from cuts to its staff and resources in this year’s budget as passed by both chambers of the General Assembly last week.

Despite legislative leaders’ spin, neutral third-party analysis of the biennial NC budget was scathing.“A monument to bad management” by the WRAL editorial staff may have been the most memorable line.

While much of the public criticism has focused on the budget’s education provisions, as well as cuts targeted to hamper the offices of Governor and Attorney General, environmental quality also took a serious hit. DEQ—already understaffed and struggling to fulfill its mission with the resources on hand—was hit with more slashing cuts: almost $2 million total, including loss of both leadership staff and regional office personnel working environmental assistance and customer service programs. Meanwhile, no added staff positions were assigned to handle growing permit processing and monitoring demands.

Elsewhere, both the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund were cut from current funding levels. Funding for the energy center at NC State was eliminated.

In the “special provisions,” the good news comes in the removal of the Senate’s perennial attempt to place a moratorium on new wind energy projects. In addition, a Senate provision that would have strongly discouraged the use of state Transportation planning funds for bicycle transportation projects was reduced to a mild extra reporting requirement.

However, other special provisions allocate $250,000 for the state Department of Agriculture to join a wasteful national lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s Clean Water Rule and set aside $1.3 million for what’s being called “Son of SolarBee” (another boondoggle effort to treat Jordan Reservoir water “in-lake” instead of cutting pollution at its sources). Another complicated provision buried in the budget may make it more difficult for the state Department of Transportation to negotiate more in-state passenger rail service with Amtrak without legislative authorization.

A good summary of many of these budget points can be found in this analysis from NC Conservation Network’s Grady McCallie.

The budget has now gone to the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper to be signed or vetoed. He has strongly criticized the budget as adopted and is being urged to veto it. Unfortunately, the margins of passage in both chambers were wide enough to override a veto. All told, the 2017 budget bill represented another slide in the wrong direction for North Carolina’s environment, and underscored the need to make changes in the membership of the General Assembly.

Up next: speaking of harmful budgets, let’s review President Trump’s proposal >>