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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

PA Environmental Dollars at Stake as Budget Hearings Get Underway

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Thursday, March 17, 2011   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - All eyes in Harrisburg are on the Senate Appropriations Committee as it begins two weeks of budget hearings. Among those keeping watch are agency heads and advocates waiting to see how environmental and conservation initiatives fare. Facing a $4 billion state deficit, Gov. Corbett has called for cuts to the departments of agriculture and environmental protection.

Matt Ehrhart, executive director, Pennsylvania office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, says it is another challenge for agencies already working with limited resources.

"It really is difficult, as you cut year after year into these budgets, and it becomes harder and harder for the secretaries in these agencies to advocate for the resources that they need to do their jobs."

Ehrhart says the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) takes an especially hard hit in the governor's budget - in part, because federal stimulus dollars for some projects are no longer on the table.

"DEP, in particular, is an agency that is delegated programs by the federal government - under the Clean Air Act, under the Clean Water Act - so the state has to be able to fulfill those obligations."

Ehrhart also has concerns about areas cut in the budget that aren't primarily seen as being in the environmental or conservation arena but, in reality, affect both.

"These deep cuts to our land grant university, in particular, and ag extension and ag research funding, really play out across our ability to implement good conservation year after year."

However, some positives are emerging, Ehrhart notes. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources budget for the next fiscal year is up slightly in the Corbett plan. Also, the budget for a state program allowing farmers and businesses to earn tax credits in exchange for solid agricultural practices is increased from $5 million to $10 million. Funding remains the same for county conservation districts.



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