The Greening the Budget (Virginia) 2005 report identifies critical areas in which reforms can produce both environmental and fiscal benefits, thus producing two-fold benefits for Virginia’s taxpayers. Reforming subsidy programs, eliminating wasteful expenditures, ensuring that Virginia gets its full share of federal dollars to address problems of congestion and poor air quality, and making sure that industries adversely affecting the environment bear the costs of their activities, are important components of sound fiscal and environmental policy.

Read Greening the Budget 2005 – Virginia.

The Green Fees & Scissors in Texas 2005 report offers thirteen fiscally sound recommendations to help ease the Texas budget crisis while discouraging pollution and natural resource degradation. All told, these 13 recommendations could free up at least $300 million and perhaps more than $1 billion for the state’s budget writers, either through the creation of additional fees, appropriating fees that are already created or ending tax loopholes and cutting costly programs.

Read Green Fees & Scissors in Texas 2005.

Green Watchdog believes that environmental protection and strict fiscal accountability go hand-in-hand. In fact, pollution is most often the result of poor accountability, allowing corporations or individuals to take advantage of free public resources to the detriment of our health and environment. The 2004 Green Watchdog report, the fourth in a series of annual reports, provides 10 budget recommendations that would improve California’s environment and public health while restoring fiscal accountability.

Read Green Watchdog 2004.

Eleven fiscally sound and environmentally friendly “green budget” policies evaluated in the Greening the Budget (Maryland) 2004 report could improve the outlook for Maryland’s environment, while simultaneously increasing state revenues by at least $145 million in the next full fiscal year, with up to $3 billion in long-term savings. Closing harmful loopholes in the tax code, eliminating unfair subsidies for pollution, and cutting wasteful projects would create financial disincentives for sprawling growth, air pollution, wetlands development, overuse of groundwater, and other environmentally damaging activities. At the same time, these policy changes could help address the severe fiscal crisis facing the state.

Read Greening the Budget 2004 – Maryland.

The District of Columbia Green Scissors 2003 report offers attainable and realistic solutions to help reconcile the District’s revenue shortages and improve the environment. This report highlights more than $642 million in budget savings that could be obtained by ending wasteful transportation projects, reforming the property tax system, and requiring the beneficiaries of the District’s environmental infrastructure to pay their fair share. Adopting the recommendations in this report will save money and improve the environment.

Read Green Scissors 2003 – District of Columbia.

Twenty environmental, consumer and taxpayer groups have reviewed California state spending and formulated the Green Watchdog report to provide a menu of budget cuts and tax loophole closures for policy makers to consider adopting this year, as well as to encourage a longer term rethinking of how the budget impacts the environment. Green Watchdog recommends fourteen cuts and policy changes that could save state taxpayers more than $23 billion while making a major contribution to improving our environment.

Read Green Watchdog 2001.

Minnesota Green Scissors 1999 makes eight recommendations that could save the Minnesota state government more than $273 million while making a major contribution to improving our environment. Recommendations include cutting expensive bureaucratic programs, reining in highway and bridge construction, and making sure that private organizations don’t use the public’s money to feather their nest.

Read Green Scissors 1999 – Minnesota.