State Parks to Remain Open

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News Update

The news about the on-again, off-again closure of state parks units is off again. The following is the latest information about the closure of state parks following a reduction in funding in the state budget.

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September 26, 2009

State Avoids Shutting More Than a Third of Its Parks

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

LOS ANGELES — When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the final cuts to an already pain-peppered California budget in July, one of the most shocking indications of how dire things had become was the decision to close more than a third of the state's parks.

On Friday, though, Mr. Schwarzenegger's office said sufficient alternative savings had been found within the California Department of Parks and Recreation to avoid any closings at all, at least in this fiscal year.

The savings, which the department had been unable to identify during months of budget wrangling, were suddenly realized with the help of Schwarzenegger administration finance experts looking over the shoulders of parks officials.

In the two months since the July announcement, Mr. Schwarzenegger's threat to close 100 parks had landed in a budget soft spot created by bipartisan outrage among lawmakers, their constituents and lobbyists, and by a growing sense in the administration that closing parks would do little to burnish the governor's reputation as a public figure committed to the environment.

Though few will rue the preservation of the park system, the 11th-inning save does underscore how even in the worst fiscal conditions, the threat of vast cuts is sometimes false, fueling skepticism among lawmakers and voters about ominous budget pronouncements and the ballot measures that often ensue to address them.

“The budget process is so complicated and confusing to people to begin with, and there is so much distrust in government, that when people hear about changes in spending cuts, they are left questioning whether or not real revenues are really needed,” said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group based in San Francisco.

A plan to cut $175 million from a health insurance program was also recently reversed, but that program was spared by bipartisan legislation that replaced one tax for another and used federal stimulus money to fill the gaps. The parks department situation is different, because it is essentially a re-do.

The department's budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, was dealt a reduction of 10 percent, or $14.2 million. As a result, the state said in July, 100 of California's 279 parks were to close at least temporarily unless donations or private partnerships materialized.

But in the last week, amid a growing outcry and a leaked parks department memorandum suggesting that closing state parks could result in breach-of-contract lawsuits by the parks' vendors, the administration began to back away.

The backpedaling was apparently made complete with Friday's announcement by the governor's office, which said the savings would instead be realized with steps like cutting back on maintenance, delaying the purchase of equipment and reducing days of operation in some parks, hours of operation in others.

The announcement described these savings as one-time, suggesting that the cost of running the parks would have to be addressed again in the budget for the next fiscal year.

Roy Stearns, a spokesman for the parks department, said the earlier budget negotiations, which lasted months, had perhaps not offered sufficient time to find the cuts that will now come to pass.

Others attributed the impetus to political pressure from parks advocates and from lawmakers representing districts where businesses profit from the parks' presence.

Mindful that Friday's rescue would nonetheless mean reduced hours for the parks, among other steps, Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation, said: “They still have a $14.2 million budget cut. The governor found a clever way to find some political cover on this issue, but it's not clear that the plan won't actually leave Californians with just as limited an access to their state parks as if they were fully closed.”

The foundation and other conservation groups hope to place a measure on the November 2010 ballot that would increase vehicle license fees by $15 a year to finance the parks, a move that would double their budget and free it from the state's general fund. In exchange, California drivers would get free admission to all state parks.

The governor rejected a similar measure proposed by lawmakers during the legislative session.

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What the Governor Said ...

To avoid full and complete park closures while achiev­ing the budgeted savings, the administration can achieve one-time budget savings this fiscal year in the following manner:

Maintenance and Equipment: reduce ongoing maintenance for the remainder of 2009-10 and eliminate all major equipment purchases, such as vehicle replacements. (Savings estimated at $12.1 million)

Service Reductions: reduc­ing hours and/or days of operation at most state park units, reducing expenditures on seasonal staff, reducing staffing and operations at headquarters (Savings estimated at $2.1 mil­lion).

Examples of service reduc­tions include: (1) some facilities will close weekdays and be open on weekends and holidays; (2) portions of a unit may be closed, such as the back loop of a campground; (3) for a park with multiple campgrounds, one whole campground or day use facility may be closed while the rest of the park remains open; and (4) parks that already close for seasonal conditions may see a longer closure. Service reduc­tions will be planned to minimize disruptions to visitors, achieve cost savings and maintain park fee revenues.

To achieve the $22.2 million of ongoing future general fund savings that was included in the 2009 budget act, the adminis­tration can explore various solu­tions for inclusion in the Jan. 10 budget to generate ongoing savings while minimizing full and complete park closures.