BALANCING RISK AND FINANCE - THE CHALLENGE OF IMPLEMENTING UNFUNDED ENVIRONMENTAL MANDATES

What impact have unfunded environmental mandates had an local governme nts? Carol Cimitile, Victoria Kennedy, Henry Lambright, Rosemary O'Lea ry and Paul Weiland's two-pronged research studied seven local governm ents in New York State in 1994. First they examined if and how these l ocal governments prioritized risks (such as environmental and public h ealth problems) to decide what environmental areas should have priorit y. Second, they examined how local governments were paying for the imp lementation of environmental mandates. The division of responsibility for environmental programs differs dramatically among the seven local governments studied. Common themes, however, were discovered and are d iscussed. The authors conclude that the problems posed by unfunded env ironmental mandates are the result of a number of factors including fr agmentation (institutional scientific, legal, and political), lack of information, and the rigidity of laws and regulations. They call for a national reexamination of environmental regulation.