I’ve been following the saga of the potential closure of many of California’s State Parks throughout California’s ugly budget battle. Well, we’ve got some news — mostly good — on how the proposed budget affects the state parks, and by extension our ability to hike park trails.
Here’s the contents of an e-mail update I just received from the California State Parks Foundation:
Dear John,
As you may have heard, last night the Big 5 (Governor Schwarzenegger plus the Democratic and Republican leaders in the State Senate and Assembly) announced they have reached a deal on the state budget. The details are not yet in print, but several sources are confirming that $70 million of the park system’s General Fund allocation will be eliminated, with $62 million backfilled by other funding sources on what appears to be a one-time basis.
This leaves the state park system with an $8 million gap, and is expected to result in park closures. At this time, there is not a list of certain closures, we do not know how many or which parks may be closed as a result of the budget deal.
Considering where we started just 8 weeks ago, this outcome is better for state parks than most people could have imagined. We are not finished – the Legislature still needs to approve the budget deal by the end of the week and more details need to come out regarding the parks that will close – but the fact that we’re looking at a much more scaled-down version of park cuts than we started with is welcome news. It is certainly a testament to the Save Our State Parks Campaign, the tens of thousands of Californians – like you! – who stood up for their parks, and the efforts of all of us that we’ve stared down such a draconian proposal.
In terms of next steps, the deal must be agreed to by 2/3 of the Legislature, and they’re expected to vote on it on Thursday or Friday. As you can imagine, there are plenty of pieces in this agreement for all sides to hate, but let’s hope there is the will to at least get this passed now, to keep the state moving forward.
Thank you for your efforts to help Save Our State Parks, and we will update you once a final state budget is in place.
Traci Verardo-Torres
Vice President, Government Affairs
The California State Parks Foundation home page speculates that the $8 million dollar difference could result in a closure of around 30 parks.
