The House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly Thursday to spend $50 million annually on cleaning Chesapeake Bay pollution, drawing funds from the state?s gas and car rental taxes.
The legislation, approved in a 102-31 vote, specifies how the fund must be divided. The Senate has not voted on the bill, but last week it agreed to also create a trust with funds diverted from the state?s Program Open Space and a tax on vehicle titles.
Environmental groups immediately celebrated the House action.
“If we as citizens are asked to make sacrifices, we better get something for our investment,” said Cindy Schwartz, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.
The House last term passed similar legislation known as the “green fund” by taxing new construction. That planned failed to gain traction in the Senate, said Del. Maggie McIntosh, the Democratic chair of the House?s Environmental Matters Committee.
McIntosh championed the new fund, renamed the “Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund” in recognition of the deadline for Bay restoration goals established in a federal agreement in 2000. If approved by the Senate, the trust will be divided among state agencies to help farmers reduce harmful runoff, fund improvements to local stormwater management plans and create urban parks.
Some Republicans said the legislation was irrelevant because the special session was called to work on the $1.5 billion structural deficit.
“It wasn?t why we came here,” House Republican leader Del. Anthony O?Donnell said. “We?re here in this … special session to solve the state?s spending problem.”
Del. Christopher Shank, the minority whip from Washington County, said the legislation does not preclude funding the trust with new taxes in the future.
Del. Murray Levy, a Democrat from Charles County, said the fund draws on existing revenue, not new taxes, and urged lawmakers to support the measure.
“Instead of shifting funds away from farmers in our rural areas, this bill pays them for doing the work to clean up the Chesapeake Bay,” Levy said. “It?s fairer for our farmers.”
The Senate and House also must reconcile differences between the trust?s funding source before final adoption.
