The last time the state approved such environmental borrowing was under Republican Gov. George Pataki during a presidential election year in 1996. The $1.75 billion Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act has nearly been spent, though records show as of early 2022 about $82 million remained and $100 million is authorized for borrowing.  The Explorer spent over six months reviewing records and interviewing members of the Pataki administration, environmental leaders and state agencies to see how the majority of the last environmental bond act was spent. It found no audit was ever done. A full accounting was never made available. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, in charge of the bulk of the funding, had issued a handful of annual reports accounting expenditures and allocations. The last public report to state legislators was just over two decades ago in March 2001 when $1.3 billion had been appropriated, but $647 million had actually been spent.