Budget for Environmental Protection Slashed

Late Tuesday night, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a budget for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Lawmakers stayed in the Capitol late into the night to reach budget agreements. While this may seem admirable on the surface, it is actually quite disappointing considering we pay taxes for a full time legislature (one of the only ones in the U.S.), and the due date for a final budget never changes (October 1st). Yet it seems that everytime they are required to pass a budget for the state of Michigan, they wait until the last minute and rush through the proceedings in the wee hours of the morning.

So what was the result of this late night procrastination session? The most basic summary is a DEQ budget that was cut by about 30%, and the elimination of approximately 36 state jobs. A 30% cut on paper translates into a complete inability to enforce environmental regulations in the real world.

At the same time that our state is spending millions of dollars on the Pure Michigan ad campaign to try to attract tourism business, the state legislature is slashing the budgets of the two state departments that protect, maintain, and restore the resources being marketed. This seems crazy considering that tourism and recreation is the third largest economic sector in Michigan.

Without a fully functioning DEQ and DNR, sites of toxic pollution will not be cleaned up, state parks will not be maintained, communities with contaminated drinking water will be neglected, and polluters will have free reign. This is unacceptable for our economy and our quality of life.

There is hope. 40 legislators had the common sense to oppose such an irresponsbile budget, and many of these lawmakers are allies of MLCV: Representatives Dan Scripps, Rebekah Warren, Lisa Brown, Sarah Roberts, Tim Bledsoe, Kate Segal, Mary Valentine, Roy Schmidt, Bob Jones, Deb Kennedy, and Mike Huckleberry, to name a few.

These legislators deserve our support now and in the future, and we can help to salvage this situation by demanding that anyone running for office in 2010 state their support for strong natural resource protection. It's time for elected officials to stop saying they're "green" and start proving it. 40 lawmakers did just that yesterday, and they understand the environmental ethic that will protect our economy and way of life in Michigan.