The Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, or L-CHIP, has doled out 15 million dollars over the past 3 years.
And L-CHIP supporters want 12 million dollars to spend over the next 2 years.
But the program's funding is far from secure as lawmakers try to balance the budget.
NHPR's David Darman has more.
L-CHIP supporters say the program has proven its worth.
In three years, L-CHIP has helped rehabilitate 83 structures, and preserve more than 200,000 acres of land.
Bill Hoyt is the executive director of Citizens for New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, a group lobbying for L-CHIP.
Hoyt says L-CHIP's mission is now more important than ever.
08 37 � why we need it is the amount of sprawl, the amount of development that�s taking place currently in the state, the state of historic builidings that are just crumbling, falling, that are bulldozed to put up a steel box, that doesn�t have any character, so I think there�s a huge need out there for the program. 08 106
Democrat Clifton Below is one of the program�s most ardent supporters.
Below says he thinks there�s room in the state�s budget to fund L-CHIP at the same level as last year, 6 million dollars a year.
04 205 in the greater scheme of things, it�s a modest amount of money to level fund it. A few million dollars. And we�re dealing with a probably shortfall of on the order of a hundred million dollars in terms of our budgetary issues. 04 219
New Hampshire joins states across the country facing budget deficits.
But Congress has recently moved to send billions to state coffers.
New Hampshire is expecting 84 million dollars in this federal aid.
But even this good financial news doesn�t change the mind of one L-CHIP opponent on the Senate Finance Committee.
Senator Robert Boyce is vice chairman.
06 43 the idea that we use you know, public money, to take private property out of the hands of the owners, and foreclose possible future uses of property I disagree with that. I just disagree with the program all over. 06 106
Boyce probably doesn�t have much support for his position on the Finance Committee.
But several committee members have said they aren�t sure they can fund L-CHIP at six million dollars a year.
They say programs that provide help to the needy, or healthcare for children, may need state money more than LCHIP.
Charlie Neibling of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is lobbying the Finance Committee for LCHIP.
Neibling says he�s not sure how much the committee will ultimately make available.
01 127 �the question really comes down to, how will it stack up relative to all the other priorities that they have to fund? 134 I think, at a minimum, we�re pretty optimistic that they�re going to retain the level of funding that the house approved, which is a pretty significant cut, from the current funding level... 158
The House voted L-CHIP 4 million dollars a year in its budget.
The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee says he�s not sure how much funding his committee will approve.
Senator Dick Green says the committee has to consider L-CHIP along with the whole budget, including spending on education, healthcare, and other programs.
05 115 �if I had my way we�d fund all these things, but it may not be that easy, so, we�ll have to wait and see how the bottom line figures out, and how lchip figures into that whole scenario. 05 132
The Senate Finance Committee is working on the budget this week.
The full Senate will debate the budget and L-CHIP funding in June.
