News Room > Press Releases

June 9, 2004

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Contacts:
Doug Linney, Green Capitol, 510.444.4078; Mobile : 510-290-9910
Zack Kaldveer, Green Capitol, 510-444-4078 ext. 316

Green Watchdog Report Offers 10 Budget Proposals that Improve and Reform the Way California ’s Environmental Protection Programs are Funded
Green Watchdog to Governor and Legislature: “Everybody Should Pay Their Fair Share”

(CA) - A coalition of over 40 environmental, taxpayer, public health, and consumer interest organizations released the fourth annual Green Watchdog report today. It proposes 10 ways that California could improve and reform the ways in which environmental programs are funded and eliminate environmentally wasteful subsidies and tax loopholes. The message of this year’s Green Watchdog report is simple: “Everybody should pay their fair share.”

“With threatened budget cuts undermining basic environmental protections it is especially critical that everyone pay their fair share. We can’t afford to sacrifice our air and water just because Sacramento can’t balance the budget,” said Doug Linney, Program Director of Green Capitol.  “Those who create the environmental problems should pay for the required regulation and clean up.  Pollution prevention should be a requirement of doing business in our Golden State .”

Programs responsible for keeping our air and water clean and the public healthy are being starved of the dollars necessary to effectively fulfill their mandate. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), General Fund expenditures for resources and environmental protection programs are at their lowest point in relation to overall expenditures since 1998. Similarly, when total expenditures are taken into account - which includes special funds (from fees), federal funds, and bond funds - natural resource agencies will suffer a 40 percent reduction from 2003-04 expenditures, and a moderately lower funding level on average compared to other recent budget years.

Green Watchdog 2004 proposals are consistent with the goals and recommendations of the Environmental Budget Project (EBP). The EBP seeks to ensure that California fully meets its environmental and public health stewardship responsibilities as it crafts the state’s budget. Green Watchdog’s alliance with EBP highlights the emerging consensus that California must improve and reform the way environmental protection and public health programs are funded. Mutual Green Watchdog and EBP members include, Sierra Club California , Environment California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the California League of Conservation Voters, among others.

Green Watchdog seeks to restore fiscal integrity to California ’s budget by ensuring the industries or individuals that pollute the air and water pay for the monitoring and regulation of their activities. Applying appropriate “user fees” where necessary can serve as a tool for the state to hold business accountable for their actions, to provide a disincentive to pollute, and in some cases increase funding for critical environmental programs.

“Protecting the environment and making polluters pay their fair share is a smart approach,” stated David Hirsch, Program Director at Friends of the Earth. “By adopting these recommendations, California can hold itself up as a model for the rest of the nation.”

“We need a consistent and reliable funding source for California’s resource protection agencies,” said Pete Price, Legislative Advocate for the California League of Conservation Voters  “The cost of pollution prevention should be treated as the cost of doing business in California for those that put a burden on our natural resources and the agencies charged with keeping our air and water clean.”

“Gov. Schwarzenegger was elected on a promise to “open the books” and end waste in California government. The Green Watchdog is one “book” he should open right away and eliminate unfair subsidies,” commented Lenny Goldberg, Executive Director of the California Tax Reform Association.

When put together, the Green Watchdog proposals would save $100’s of millions a year in General Fund revenue, generate $100’s of millions in additional funding for air and water quality programs, and eliminate environmentally harmful tax giveaways. Green Watchdog 2004 recommends:

• Enacting a fee of up to $6 per vehicle per year to be assessed by the DMV on automobiles registered in Bay Area counties that choose to participate in the program, generating up to $150 million a year for projects that protect or restore the Bay Area’s natural resources impacted by motor vehicles;
• Assessing a 1-cent per gallon of gas fee on petroleum refined or sold in California to fund air quality programs, providing $187 million in additional funding a year;
• Requiring chemical manufacturers to provide the state with more information on the chemicals they use including test methods for chemicals in soil, air, and the human body, saving taxpayers $2-5 million a year;
• Assessing a $.01 per board foot fee on timber products sold in California, fully fund timber harvest review plans and saving taxpayers approximately $25 million a year;
• Eliminating tax deductions of up to $25,000 in the first year of purchase of vehicles weighing over 6,000 pounds, saving taxpayers an average of $15 million a year;
• Enacting a fee on private landowners for the fire protection they receive in State Responsibility Areas, saving taxpayers $150 million a year;
• Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction for second homes, saving taxpayers $55 million a year;
• Increasing landing fees to cover costs to the Department of Fish and Game’s ocean resources management program, saving taxpayers over $4 million a year;
• Increase fees on polluters to fully fund the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s work protecting the public’s health, saving taxpayers $3.6 million a year; and
• Increasing fees on developers to fully fund the Department of Fish and Game’s critical work protecting fish and wildlife, saving taxpayers approximately $11 million a year.

The Green Watchdog report provides principles that will help create a more environmentally responsible and fiscally accountable budget. These principles include: cutting pork barrel spending, eliminating counterproductive policies, and making sure everybody pays their fair share.

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