Wetlands Update
From Don Pachner

The New York State Legislation has passed an on-time budget for the first time in recent memory; however, they did not include wetlands legislation in the budget.

Once again Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno has held off expanding wetlands regulation. Through radio ads and lots of constituent calls to Senators, we were able to notch up the pressure on Bruno. So, while we didn't get what we hoped for, expansion of the state law, we did gain some ground.

Senator Bruno told some of our supporters like Senator LaValle that while wetlands wouldn't be addressed during the budget, it would be addressed after the budget. LaValle's environmental staffer reported he was told by Bruno's staff that wetlands was this year's big environmental issue like brownfields was two years ago and it would be addressed.

Our number of supporters grows, while the overall number of Republican Senators falls. Last year 20 of 38 Republican Senators publicly stated they were on our side. As of last week, 24 of 35 Republican Senators say they are on our side.

Bruno's office is showing signs of strain. In response to the radio ads that we did jointly with Trout Unlimited, a member of Bruno's staff called to question their charitable status and whether or not they could justify the claims in the ad. In essence threatening them. A similar conversation occurred between this same staffer and the President of the New York State Conservation Council which represents county federations of hunting and fishing groups. In that instance on hearing that the Council was supporting the DiNapoli/Marcellino wetlands bill, the staffer is quoted as saying, "If you know what's good for you, you won't touch this issue." A statement that was not well received to put it mildly.

So, while we didn't get wetlands protection as part of the budget as we had hoped, we have advanced our position and gained ground. Marcellino's office told us at our Lobby day that they were going to move the bill at next week's committee meeting.

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