New state website tracks $4.2B environmental bond spending

Interactive map shows projects funded by bond act

By Gwendolyn Craig

It’s a new era of transparency and technology for the state and its accounting of a $4.2 billion environmental bond act voters passed in November 2022. A state website launched recently allows the public to see where that money is going and what funding remains available.

The previous environmental bond act, which voters passed in 1996, had no one-stop accounting for the $1.75 billion, the Explorer found. In fact $81 million of the 1996 Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act has yet to be disbursed as of March 31, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. 

Suzanna Randall, the DEC’s chief resiliency officer and unofficial “bond act czar,” said the new website is a multi-agency effort.

“I’m a taxpayer; you’re a taxpayer,” she said. “We want to see what kind of projects are getting funded. That’s really what we’re doing is showing where the dollars are going, what stage projects are in.”

Some website highlights the DEC provided include:

The first Adirondack project

The interactive map shows one project funded in the Adirondacks so far. It is a $13.1 million grant via the DEC awarded in February for the Adirondack Rail Trail and Saranac Lake Depot project. The 34-mile recreational trail will connect Lake Placid and Tupper Lake.

Whether more trail work will get funded with bond act dollars remains to be seen. Randall said a workgroup is considering criteria, with hopes of rolling out more information later this year.

Randall said she hopes applicants will use the “fund my project” tool. 

Search by topic

Users can choose from applicant types from a drop-down menu (academic institution, nonprofit organization,  local government, Native American nation, etc.). They can choose project types they’d like help with funding.

Categories range from buffer restoration, to emissions reduction, to fish passage. Applicants choose the region of the project, what phase it is in, and voila, a list of potential grant sources crops up.

“We’re looking to really have a steady pace of moving dollars out the door,” Randall said.

The application process

Randall walked through a typical process for a grant. 

There’s a scoring process leading to an announcement of the award. A final contract may need the state comptroller or the Attorney General’s approval. It may take three to six months before a contract is in place. There could be a feasibility study involved with designs and plans. A project may require multiple permits. 

Then the applicant will need to go out to bid for the work. Depending on construction availability, a project could begin a year from when it’s announced.

When Randall worked for the governor’s storm recovery office, she said, if they bid on too many jobs in a small, rural community, she found local projects were competing against themselves. 

“We want to make sure we do that expediently, but also not in such a way that we’re like ‘oh my gosh, we’re failing because it’s too much,’” she said.

Remaining funds from 1996

Randall hopes it won’t take multiple generations to get the money out the door, like with the 1996 bond act. 

The DEC said of that act’s remaining $81 million, at least $30 million “cannot be accessed by state agencies and authorities until a memorandum of understanding is signed by the Senate, Assembly and governor. DEC will continue to elevate these MOUs and seek to find opportunities to work with the Legislature on allocating these funds.”

Some of the leftover money has already been committed to ongoing projects, but has not yet been dispersed, the DEC said. There are seven state agencies and authorities, including the DEC, responsible for finding projects for remaining funds.

Top photo: A mother and child wait to cross a public road along the Adirondack Rail Trail in Lake Placid. Photo by Mike Lynch

Adirondack policy, in plain speak

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