Funding the Conservation Fund Appropriately

At tonight's Environment, Ag and Natural Resources Committee, I am proposing an amendment (link in comments) to fund the County's Conservation Fund at 5 million in line with the departments request.

The fund has a carry over of 11 million from last year so that brings the total funding to 16 million. The amendment reduces the County Exec's allocation from 10 million to 5 million and is in line with the guidance to "Use extreme restraint when it comes to new capital requests."

The 16 million in funding is roughly in line with the 2025 budget.

We have many tough choices to make with our 31 million deficit. I am strong advocate for land purchases for conservation, to control sprawl and for climate change and flooding resiliency.

However, we need the balance our priorities as a County and focus on our most immediate needs. We also need to keep our debt service manageable so they don't eat too much into our operating funds.

The amendment will be discussed tonight but will not be voted on until our 2nd EANR budget meeting on 10/22.