The state’s proposed supplemental operating budget combined with inadequate bonding recommendations further weaken protections for lakes and streams, wildlife habitat and parks and trails that Minnesotans value, according to a new budget analysis released in late March by Conservation Minnesota.

Beginning in 2010, the proposed budget leaves a $100 million gap in funding for lake and river cleanup, the report observes. It also reduces park and trail maintenance, shortchanges fish and wildlife habitat protection, cuts the DNR’s ecological programs, underfunds the cleanup of landfill contamination. The share of the state general fund devoted to conservation and the environment would shrink to less than a penny on the tax dollar in 2010. The report’s findings underscore the importance of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would appear on the November ballot. It would provide almost $300 million in additional funding per year for clean water, habitat, parks and trails and heritage programs through a 25-year, 3/8 cent sales tax increase.

The budget analysis, entitled Running on Empty, is available online at the Conservation Minnesota web site. Read more…