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Governor's Budget Would Restore LCHIP Funding

Governor Hassan’s is proposing the state restore funding to Environmental groups’ first priority: the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. The $4 million dollars a year for LCHIP comes from fees tacked generated by certain real-estate transactions. It’s supposed to go into a dedicated fund used to put land and historic building into preservation.

But Jim O’Brien with the Nature Conservancy says, since 2008 that money has been used to plug holes in the state’s budget. O'Brien is optimistic that this money will make it into "Our hope is that the House and Senate Finance Committee will understand that this dedicated fund is being paid by taxpayers to fund land conservation." 

Hassan’s budget would restore one million in the first year, and the full amount from the fund in the second year.

It’s not a sure thing that this money will come through budget negotiations untouched, but, there are positive signs for the conservation-minded. In a statement chief Republican budget-maker Chuck Morse chided Hassan for continuing to take money from LCHIP during the first year of the budget.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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