Learning from a $1.75 billion lesson
This November, New York voters will decide whether the state will take on unprecedented debt for environmental projects, something they have not been asked to do in 26 years.
The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022, requested by Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, promises $4.2 billion for climate, air-and water-quality projects.
Originally $3 billion as proposed by former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2020, it was put off at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. After Cuomo’s resignation, Hochul and state legislators increased it.
The last such bond act, touted by Republican Gov. George Pataki, won approval with a 55% endorsement. The Clean Air/Clean Water Bond Act of 1996 provided $1.75 billion “for protection of New York’s air, water and abundant natural resources,” according to an annual report.
What became of that borrowing?
Records show nearly 95% of the money is gone, but about $82 million remains and $106 million more in borrowing is authorized. The state may use some this year after announcing in July that $1.5 million of bond act funds will be used at Imperial Mills Dam in Plattsburgh on a fish ladder for salmon to journey to the Saranac River.
What New Yorkers and Adirondackers received is partially available from agencies in charge of expenditures:
• Thousands of acres including some of the most desirable parcels in the Adirondacks, like a major piece of Whitney Park.
• Cleaner heating systems to replace coalfired furnaces in New York City schools.
• Remediation of heavily polluted sites, including one of the country’s dirtiest water bodies at the time, central New York’s Onondaga Lake.
• Adirondack landfill closures.
• Millions in grants and loans for drinking water projects.
• Non-environmental projects and a wish list from individual lawmakers, like the preservation of a church steeple in Watertown and the restoration of Rensselaer County’s courthouse.
Using a mix of methods and programs, government leaders listed projects, said Jessica Ottney Mahar, New York policy and strategy director for The Nature Conservancy. Some involved applications and a ranking system. Some were already outlined in management and open space plans.
Others were funded through agreements between Pataki and legislators known as memorandums of understanding.
“Critics said this is just pork barrel spending,” Mahar said. “Pork” describes government spending for projects that benefit
