Adirondack Council Head Defends Environmental Budget Request in Empire Page Interview

ALBANY, NY (04/20/2010)(readMedia)-- Brian Houseal, executive director of Adirondack Council, defended his group's request for more money in the 2010-2011 budget for the environment in an interview published today by the Empire Page website.

His group and others were critical of Gov. Paterson's environmental budget earlier this year. "[T]he Governor seems to want us to settle for nothing," Houseal states. "He is acting as if the environment was a special interest -- like clean water and clean air were luxuries we can live without until the economy improves."

In particular, the Adirondack Council is unhappy with the Governor's $143 million allocation for the Environmental Protection Fund. "The EPF pays for landfill closure and capping; for recycling faculties and transfer stations; and for new public lands, parks and historic sites," Houseal states.

Given the state's current fiscal problems, the Adirondack Council would accept 25 percent less than the $300 million target established when the Fund was created in 1993 – an amount almost twice what the governor proposed.

Houseal defended continued use of the EPF for Adirondack land purchases. "Adirondack land purchases don't take property off the tax rolls and they don't harm the economy," he states.

Houseal reports improved relations with residents of the Adirondacks, recalling many conflicts in the early years of the organization's history. To demonstrate that the Council's message is getting through, he cites passage of a law by the Town of Inlet in Hamilton County that the Council advocates be adopted statewide that would require a working septic system be part of any home sale.

The entire interview with Brian Houseal can be found in the Improving New York section of the Empire Page website.

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