Apr
20
The LSPA is requesting that you outreach to your state representative to urge his/her support of House Amendment #603 to the proposed FY 2018 state budget (H. 3600). House Amendment #603 would increase the state appropriation to the 21J Fund from $6 million to $10 million. The LSPA supports this amendment and we are told to expect a vote on it as early as this coming Monday, April 24th.
The amendment was sponsored jointly by Rep. Kafka (D-Sharon) and Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading), and they are currently the only sponsors. More bill sponsors may provide the support needed to get this passed by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The 21J Fund is seriously underfunded annually; an approximately $6 million deficit in unpaid claims (claims processed and approved but unable to be paid) is projected for the end of FY 2017. For more background information, read this article from the most recent LSPA newsletter.
The time is now! The more voices the better. Please email or call your state representative to urge him/her to support this amendment. Four simple points will do:
- Please sign on as a co-sponsor to House Amendment 603 and please speak to House leadership in support of the amendment.
- The Fund's primary purpose is to ensure the cleanup of drinking water, groundwater, and soils following a spill or leak of petroleum.
- Without sufficient funding, the 21J Fund cannot pay its stakeholder group of claimants for their cleanup actions. Contractors, equipment suppliers and other vendors maintain an employment and sales workforce in the Commonwealth. This results in income, employment and sales tax for the Commonwealth.
- The majority of petroleum dispensing facilities are owned by home grown, family-owned petroleum marketing companies that have operated and evolved in their home state of Massachusetts for several decades - not by big oil companies.
Feel free to contact Wendy Rundle, LSPA Executive Director at [email protected] with any questions or comments.
Thank you,
Michael A. Penzo, CPG, PG, LSP
LSPA President
LSPA President
Dot McGlincy, LSP, and Lauren Konetzny, LSP
Co-Chairs, LSPA Legislative Committee
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