[CPEO-BIF] Editorial calls Connecticut plan "short-sighted"

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Cleanup plan short-sighted

Editorial
Waterbury Republican-American (CT)
March 25, 2008

Ten years after then-Gov. John G. Rowland set the goal of preserving 
673,000 acres of open space by 2023, the state is nearly three quarters 
of the way there. State officials say spending $80 million in taxpayers' 
money has been well worth it even though it has made housing and land 
less affordable. Last fall, Gov. M. Jodi Rell furthered the cause by 
signing a bond package with $55 million for "anti-sprawl initiatives."

The goal is to save suburban and rural property while encouraging the 
reuse of urban land. But the state's commitment to brownfield 
remediation has been lacking.

The state Brownfields Task Force recommended spending $200 million over 
five years to clean up and redevelop polluted urban sites. Gov. Rell was 
unwilling to do that even before state revenues began to tank as the 
economy slumped. Now a legislative committee has proposed setting aside 
just $10 million a year for 10 years beginning in 2010.

...

For the entire editorial, see
http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2008/03/25/opinion/327327.txt

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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