A proposed environmental bond issue on November's ballot should be $75 million, not $60 million, activists say.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 15, 2004

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- A coalition of environmental groups backs Governor Carcieri's plan to borrow $60 million for open space acquisition, watershed protection and recreational development, but says the effort is not enough: another $15 million should be added to the proposed November ballot question.

In addition, the groups told the House Finance Committee last week that calling the bond "Environment and Groundwater Protection" might not be the best way to sell it to voters.

Instead, they would like a referendum question calling for an "Open Space and Recreation" bond. When such phrasing was used in 2000, they said, 73 percent of voters supported the question.

With fiscal belt-tightening, communities with limited tax bases are struggling to provide adequate recreational options, they said, making state help -- and the extra $15 million -- even more urgent.

"The possibility of our becoming virtually one sprawling, anonymous suburb encircling a decaying urban core is a clear and present danger," said Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island. "Our flawed property-tax system is putting increased pressure on local officials to accept big-box and strip-mall development in so-called greenfields throughout the state."

The bond, as proposed in the governor's budget, includes:

$10 million for open-space land acquisition. Bond money will be used to match federal and nonprofit grants for the purchase of nature areas.

$10 million to protect farmland from development and maintain the state's agricultural industry.

$5 million for upkeep of buildings and roads in recreational facilities, such as state parks and management areas.

$5 million for open-space grants to municipalities, local land trusts and nonprofits.

$4 million for local recreation projects, allowing communities to acquire or renovate facilities.

$1 million for recreation projects in the state's "distressed communities," currently Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket and West Warwick.

$15 million for Narragansett Bay and watershed restoration. Money from the bond would match other state and local funds, as well as nonprofit and business money, to abate pollution.

$10 million for groundwater protection and acquisition. The money would be used to investigate pump centers on private property and purchase development rights to some.

The coalition of groups which testified last week -- including the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, Grow Smart, the Rhode Island Parks and Recreation Association and The Nature Conservancy -- said the need is greater than Carcieri is suggesting.

The groups are seeking an extra $10 million for local open space, $2 million for local recreation, $2 million for distressed communities and $1 million for an item not in the governor's budget: Roger Williams Park development.

"The state bond money is the backbone of a successful conservation program that benefits all Rhode Islanders," said Janet Coit, state director of The Nature Conservancy. "In a sense, it is seed money that acts as a catalyst for federal, local and private investment.

"In the past three years, every one dollar of state funding spent on open space has attracted three non-state dollars to these projects," she added. "That is a terrific rate of return for Rhode Island."