The legislature's Appropriations Committee has included language in a bill passed this week which would take money from the fund set up to help maintain state parks. 

The $280,000 from the Passport to the Parks program would go to various other initiatives, according to the Hartford Courant.  That includes $20,000 for air quality monitoring in western Connecticut towns concerned with the soon to be opened natural gas plant in Dover, New York.  A bulk of the allocation, $200,000, was dedicated for the West River Watershed in New Haven.  Other smaller allocations are for the Middletown Fire Training Facility and the North Branch Conservation District. 

The Passport to the Parks program is funded through a $10 fee on vehicle registrations.  Parking fees are now waived at state parks for people with Connecticut license plates.