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With the new legislative session about to begin, environmental advocates are gearing up to battle for more funding for environmental protection. But that may be difficult this year.

According to the state’s Council on Environmental Quality compared to New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island Connecticut spends the smallest percentage of its general fund on environmental protection and state parks. The amount of money spent per capita on the environment is far lower in Connecticut than in these other states—with Connecticut spending about ten dollars per person in Fiscal year 2007, Rhode Island 37 dollars and New York spent a little more than fifteen dollars per capita. Lori Brown, of the League of Conservation Voters says getting more money for the Department of Environmental Protection is a top legislative priority.

It is just woefully under funded. Now that the administration is calling for cuts. There are not a lot of discretionary cuts that can be made and DEP tends to get hammered every time. It’s not just holding on to what we have its but also trying to increase so they can fully implement all the mandates the legislature gives them every year"

Environmental advocates are also hoping to get more funding to preserve farmland, open space and historic sites. But with a possible recession looming the Governor is calling on agencies to hold the line on spending.