Promoting climate change adaptation, environmental and natural resource protection, and investment in recreational assets and opportunity

What it means

This bond bill authorizes state borrowing for the environment, climate change preparation, parks and roads. Its largest parts are $1,513,500,000 for environmental and natural resource programs (including $420,000,000 for state parks, forests and other conservation and recreation facilities, $160,000,000 for state parkways and trails, and $105,000,000 for state-owned dams), $205,000,000 for climate change preparedness (including $75,000,000 in grants to help cities and towns prepare), $60,333,000 for the Clean Water Trust, $130,000,000 for parks, trails and tree planting, and $1,047,000,000 for transportation, mainly $992,000,000 for federal highway system projects and $55,000,000 for complete streets grants. It also requires a state climate adaptation and hazard mitigation plan every 5 years, creates a Global Warming Solutions Trust Fund, sets up a program to help towns use transfer of development rights zoning, and rewrites many marine fisheries penalty provisions.

Source: official text and history of H.4599 on malegislature.gov. This describes the bill text posted there; amendments may have changed the version that was voted on.