Culver insists on full environment funding

Gov. Chet Culver said Wednesday that he expects lawmakers to allocate $20 million to an environmental account that he has placed as a top priority. The Resource Enhancement and Protection Program is used to pay for a range of environmental and recreation programs from trails to local park projects. The account, this year, was allocated roughly $15 million but that was lower than the $20 million annual long-time goal of some lawmakers and environmental advocates. Culver, in January, proposed the $20 million allocation be paid by doubling Iowa�s bottle 5-cent bottle redemption policy. Under Culver�s original bottle plan, consumers would only receive 8 cents of their 10-cent deposit when they returned containers. One cent would go to bottle handlers or redemption centers and the other cent would go to the environmental program.

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