The polluted Chesapeake Bay will receive $50 million a year for a trust fund, as the Maryland House of Delegates voted 102-31 in favor of the account's establishment yesterday.
Taxes on gas and car rentals will benefit the fund. The Senate has agreed to set up a fund using money from Program Open Space, a land preservation program, and a tax on car titles; a bill, however, has not yet been passed.
Several states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have entered a federal agreement aimed at reaching 2010 restoration goals, and dollars from the trust fund will be divided among state agencies to support their water quality improvement efforts. Approximately 30 percent will benefit the Department of Agriculture to help farmers reduce runoff pollution, and about another 30 percent will go toward local governments' storm water management plans and other water quality programs. The other 40 percent of the funds will be used by various other agencies, such as the Department of Natural Resources.
Republicans argued against the trust fund, saying legislators should gather to solve infrastructure debts, not to initiate new spending. "It has no business in this extraordinary special session," said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell, Calvert Republican. Democrats argued, however, that trust fund money would come from already established taxes.
"We eagerly await a final and intact Bay Trust Fund," said Cindy Schwartz, executive director for the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, "one that we strongly hope will include the House's funding recommendations and not the Senate's funding, which would divert money from Program Open Space."
Leaders expect the Senate to ultimately approve the fund, but lawmakers will have to find middle ground before the measure goes into effect.
Source: The Washington Times
