12/13/2007
The state House on Wednesday joined with state senators and voted to send a bill to the governor's desk that funds hazardous site cleanup through 2011 and staves off a holiday layoff of 150 clean-up workers at hundreds of hazardous sites across Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill 1100 transfers about $17 million to the state's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act Fund (HSCA) from legislative accounts and earmarks $40 million in capitol stock and franchise taxes for fiscal years 2008-11. The legislation does not derail the scheduled phase-out of the capital stock and franchise tax.
HSCA was created by Act 108 of 1988. It gives the state Department of Environmental Protection the authority to investigate, assess and provide for the cleanup of sites that are currently releasing or threatening the release of hazardous substances or contaminants into the environment. This includes hazardous materials accidents on Commonwealth highways, as well as contaminated and abandoned industrial sites.
The 2007-08 state budget passed in July without agreement on a funding source to continue the program. In June, a proposal to take $40 million from the Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation (Key '93) Fund met with stiff resistance. Another proposal discussed in recent years was to raise fees on underground storage tanks. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee amended SB 1100 to fund HSCA only through the end of June 2008. That proposal met strong opposition from lawmakers who wanted a long-term solution. The House voted this week to revert to the prior version of Senate Bill 1100, which funds HSCA this year with money from the legislative accounts, and provides $40 million from the CSFT through 2011.
