This Year’s Green Bond Gets Greener, with Funds for Farmland Preservation and Open Space Investments

Vote YES for Question 4, the "Green Bond"

Key role played by Rep. Megan Cotter

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

The general election season is in full swing, and on Friday state officials and environmental groups launched their campaign in support of this year’s Green Bond.

A regular feature on the ballot, the Green Bond authorizes the state to borrow money for environment-related projects such as climate resiliency, open space and farmland preservation, and outdoor recreation. 

If approved by the electorate in November, this year’s bond would give $53 million to various programs under the aegis of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Here is the breakdown for this year’s Green Bond:

$15 million to the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, for “continued growth and modernization of Rhode Island’s only public port.” Money from the bond will be used to finance new berthing space, additional access roads, security upgrades and cargo area improvements. While not strictly an environmental priority, state officials emphasized the port’s importance for offshore wind projects.

$10 million to be administered by the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for its Municipal Resilience Program. The money would be used to fund matching grants up to 75% to support the state’s municipalities in their efforts to improve resiliency, identify high-risk dangers, and strengthen public safety with regard to increased flooding and storms.

$5 million for forest and habitat restoration at state management areas. Funding may go toward dead tree removal, tree planting, invasive species removal, and other projects to improve forest health and wildlife habitats.

$5 million for brownfield remediation. Money would go toward matching grants to remediate former industrial and other polluted sites around the state. According to DEM data, Rhode Island has awarded funds to 77 different projects in 17 different municipalities via the department’s brownfields remediation fund. The projects to date have cleaned up nearly 344 acres of contaminated land.

$5 million for local recreation. One of DEM’s most popular matching grant programs, municipalities can apply for grants to build or improve already existing recreational areas, including parks, playgrounds, athletic areas, and other recreational facilities.

$5 million for farmland preservation. A longtime ask by the state’s environmental groups, farmland preservation funding was originally left out of the governor’s original Green Bond proposal in January. Money in this bucket would go toward the budget of the Agricultural Land Preservation Commission (ALPC), which is empowered to contribute money to farmland projects so long as they preserve land as farmland in perpetuity.

$3 million for open space investments. Another popular program by DEM, money in this bucket would go toward protecting open space, whether it is farmland, undeveloped land, or recreational lands.

$3 million for the Newport Cliff Walk, to restore pedestrian access along two sections of the walk that have fallen into the sea in recent years thanks to coastal erosion.

$2 million for coastal resilience for cities and towns, matching grants for public or nonprofit entities to improve the resilience of vulnerable coastal habitats in rivers and floodplains that also improve climate resiliency in the face of rising seas, increased flooding, and storms.

Lawmakers noted the final Green Bond proposal that passed the General Assembly to appear on this year’s ballot is much greener than the one originally proposed by McKee. His original proposal did not include money for farmland preservation, open space acquisition, or forestry and habitat restoration programs, DEM initiatives that have been on almost every ballot for nearly 40 years.

In his prepared remarks at the campaign kickoff, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, D-Warwick, credited Rep. Megan Cotter, D-Exeter, for reaching across the aisle and lobbying to make the Green Bond greener.

Shekarchi said he supported changes to the bond, once budget officials in May announced the state had an extra $58 million in surplus tax revenue to work with for this fiscal year.

While policymakers stressed the need to campaign for the environmental bond’s passage, recent history has shown that it’s routinely one of the more popular ballot items to appear before voters every two years. On average since 2018 the Green Bond has garnered more than two-thirds or more of the vote share in each election.

The last Green Bond was approved in 2022 with 67% of voters approving the measure. The pandemic-era Green Bond, postponed until early 2021, was approved with 78% of the vote. 2018’s Green Economy and Clean Water Bond passed with similar support.

This year’s kickoff had an extra special guest: an actual farmer. Andrew Morley, who runs Sweet and Salty Farm, a dairy farm in Little Compton, with his wife, said if it wasn’t for the farmland preservation program in Rhode Island, they would likely be living in another state like New York or Connecticut.

Morley and his wife came to the state 15 years ago, taking over a piece of farmland that had already been preserved by the ALPC. Morley said farming in Rhode Island wasn’t impossible, but without farmland preservation funding, it soon would be.

“Farming is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” he said. “But it’s also the most challenging.”

The 2024 Green Bond will appear on ballots on Election Day as Question 4, with the rest of the state bond ballot initiatives.