Taylor and Vereb Introduce HSCA Funding Bill

State Representatives Rick Taylor (D-151) and Mike Vereb (R-150), both of Montgomery County, have introduced a bill to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund:

Under the bill (H.B. 1810), HSCA would receive revenue from money slated to be transferred to the Rainy Day Fund to keep it available through the end of the 2007-08 fiscal year in June and give the General Assembly time to provide a new, stable source of funding for the cleanup program.

“The Hazardous Site Cleanup Fund gives Pennsylvania the versatility to respond without delay to incidents where hazardous materials or toxic chemicals endanger public health and safety,” said Taylor . “Its other critically important facets include funding for investigation of illegal hazardous waste dumping and dangerous methamphetamine labs, along with cleaning and recycling contaminated industrial land known as brownfields.”

The legislation proposed by Taylor and Vereb grew out of a successful bipartisan challenge in the House to a Senate proposal in July that would have taken money for HSCA out of other environmental programs, which would have greatly hampered efforts such as the Keystone Recreation Park and Conservation Fund and other environmental initiatives. As the attempted fiscal raid was turned aside, Taylor said he would pursue other legislative options to provide the cleanup funding.

I hope to have more on this later.