HotList 03/21/2013

March 21, 2013

Friends,

March Madness is upon us as 16 basketball teams will hit the court today in hopes of extending their seasons. Another type of madness officially began this week at the General Assembly – Budget Madness. Governor McCrory released his budget on Wednesday and so the process begins. Both chambers will get their chance to weigh in on where their priorities lie in the weeks ahead.

From an environmental perspective, there are some things we like and some we don’t like about this budget. The one area I want to draw your attention to is the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. In the Governor’s budget there appears to be a nonrecurring $6.75 million appropriation next year and nothing for the following year. The link below will show you the projects CWMTF has funded up to 2012. www.cwmtf.net/#googlemap.html

CWMTF funds projects for local governments, state agencies, and non-profits to fund projects that help provide a high quality of water for the citizens of North Carolina. If you look around on their website – www.cwmtf.net, it will not take long to find an investment back home in your district.

As the budget process moves forward, I hope there will be an opportunity to provide more funding in a recurring way to this program that makes wise investments to ensure clean water for our state.

Have a good weekend,

Dan Crawford | dan@nclcv.org