Thank You to All of You Who Participated in the Exciting Growing Greener II Town Meeting and Who Continue to Write Letters and Call Your State Legislators to Show Your Support for the Growing Greener Funding Initiative! If passed, Growing Greener II will provide funding for parks, the urban forest, community revitalization, healthy rivers, clean air and a greener Philadelphia. We Have An Urgent Request: Please take a few minutes to call and write to your State Legislators (Go To http://www.legis.state.pa.us/ for Contact Information) Time is Running Out - The "Green Ribbon Commission" appointed in June to recommend a course of action for the General Assembly will meet in Harrisburg tomorrow. The Legislature may adjourn indefinitely this Friday, November 19. After that all bills not passed will automatically die. It's critical that Growing Greener II legislation not be allowed to pass away. Starting all over again in the new General Assembly is risky and promises even more delays, setting needed programs back a year or more. Ask your state legislators to support Growing Green II What is at Stake: The bond would provide $100 million for open space protection, $80 million for community parks, another $80 million for state parks, $40 million for brownfields cleanup, and much more. For more information about the funding initiative go to www.growinggreener2.org. The rally scheduled for Tuesday, November 23 from 9am to 2pm in the Rotunda in Harrisburg will be cancelled if The Legislature adjourns. Thank you for your continued support. ________________________________________________________________ Article from Philadelphia Inquirer about Philadelphia Town Meeting on Growing Greener II
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/10161517.htm Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004 Leaders tout 'Growing Greener II' The initiative to preserve open space and clean up pollution has stalled. It got local backing last night. By Frederick Cusick Inquirer Staff Writer State and city leaders last night endorsed Gov. Rendell's proposed $800 million environmental bond issue, which has gotten bogged down in a fight with Republican legislative leaders over how the money is to be raised. Speaking before an audience of about 160 at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 hall on Columbus Boulevard, Michael DiBerardinis, Rendell's secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources, called the bond issue the "most exciting initiative around the environment anywhere in the country." "This is big stuff," he said. Although Pennsylvania's population has remained more or less constant over the last 20 years and the state ranks 43d in economic growth, DiBerardinis said, "we are consuming land faster than 47 other states in the union." Every day, about 300 acres are lost to development in Pennsylvania, he said. The $800 million, which Rendell has dubbed "Growing Greener II," would be raised through a state bond issue and would go to pay for open space, parks, environmental cleanups and other causes. The first Growing Greener environmental program was passed during the Ridge administration. The secretary noted that the state is able to fund only a little more than a third of the $30 million in annual requests it gets from local governments for open-space funding. DiBerardinis said that most of these requests come from Southeastern Pennsylvania. The state's fund to clean up hazardous sites - another area that is proposed for funding under the bond issue - "is about to run out of money," DiBerardinis said. "The big issue here is not need... . I think the question is the funding." The Rendell administration wants to finance the bond issue with an extra $4-a-ton fee on trash, an amount DiBerardinis said would add less than 2 cents a day to the average state trash-collection bill. Legislative leaders have objected, he said, and Rendell is trying to pressure them to honor a pledge they made last winter to put the bond issue on the ballot for the 2005 primary. Among other speakers who endorsed Growing Greener II were Robert N.C. Nix III, head of the Fairmount Park Commission; Victor Noel Richard III, the city's commissioner of recreation; and State Rep. Michael P. McGeehan (D., Phila.). "The Fairmount Park Commission is 300 percent behind this," Nix said. Richard said that adoption of the bond issue was "crucial" to the work of the Recreation Department. The event was cosponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, the Greenspace Alliance, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact staff writer Frederick Cusick at 215-854-4449 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
