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Director’s Report 10 years of Keep It Green “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot. Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now, we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” – A Sand County Almanac Perhaps it is because we live in the most densely populated state in our nation that New Jerseyans have always overwhelmingly supported the preservation of open spaces. The COVID pandemic underscored the vital connection we have with the outdoors and how a regular dose of nature's wild things is essential to our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health. At ANJEC, we are thrilled to celebrate two remarkable benchmarks in NJ's commitment to long-term, sustainable funding to protect and preserve farmland, historic places and open space, and to create equitable access to those spaces. First, the State budget for fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025) restored $60 million in annual funding to environmental programing, specifically $48 million for farmland, historic and open space preservation, and $12 million to fund cleanup of hazardous, contaminated sites in communities. Funding for these programs had been reduced on January 1, 2024, when Governor Murphy and the NJ Legislature eliminated the 2.5 percent Corporate Business Tax (CBT) surcharge for New Jersey businesses at the very highest earning level. ANJEC and leaders from our partner organizations began speaking with legislators last fall about the environmental program cuts that would result from this funding cut. 2 ANJEC REPORT – Autumn 2024 Governor Murphy and legislators heard us. As of July 1, the new State budget includes a new 2.5 percent fee on ultra wealthy businesses, those who earn more than $10 million in annual taxable income. This new fee, dubbed the Corporate Transit Fee (CTF), is a new category of the CBT. Therefore, the environmental programming that has been funded by the CBT is restored. This new funding is retroactive to January 1, 2024, which means no environmental program funding has been lost. This new funding commitment runs through December 31, 2028, although it will need to be reauthorized annually through the State budget process. ANJEC will

environmental program funding has been lost. This new funding commitment runs through December 31, 2028, although it will need to be reauthorized annually through the State budget process. ANJEC will continue to be your advocate in Trenton for this funding because it directly supports municipal action to clean up land, create healthier communities and protect and preserve open spaces. Ten years and counting Secondly, this November we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the choice by New Jersey voters to amend our State Constitution to create sustainable funding to preserve open space in the Garden State. Back in November 2014, 66 percent of voters said "yes" on their ballots to create an amendment to the State Constitution that now dedicates 65 percent of the CBT