State Puts Squeeze on Funding for Open-Space Preservation

The state expects to spend $100 million in the coming fiscal year to fund projects to preserve open space and farmland, at least $50 million shy of what New Jersey traditionally spends annually on the popular program.

In the fiscal year following that, the funding will drop off even more dramatically, with only $40 million -- at most -- available to fund open-space preservation, parkland projects, and buyouts of flood-prone properties, according to New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin.

The total does not include $250 million in federal funds that may be available to help buy out flood-prone properties in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Martin said.

The steep decline in funding reflects the exhaustion of a $400 million bond issue approved in 2009 to pay for open-space preservation and a failure of the Christie administration to enact a stable source of funding to finance that effort, despite a campaign pledge by the Republican candidate to do so.

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