Public budgets are about priorities--they indicate where the government will back up its words with actual resources.
Gov. McCrory's proposed budget shows that North Carolina's land and water resources are not a priority.
Land for Tomorrow, a coalition of a number of NC conservation groups, reports that annual funding for the state's four conservation trust funds was slashed from $172.1 million in 2007 to $34.5 million in 2011. The Governor's proposed budget would reduce funding further to $28.2 million in the coming fiscal year. The budget does not include funding for some trust funds in the following year and removes dedicated funding sources for two trust funds.
The governor's budget amounts to less than $3 per NC resident--hardly a priority.
