California’s belated state budget agreement brings good news to parks lovers: barring any unforeseen circumstances, California will cut $8 million from its state parks rather than $70 million, and just a few parks might close rather than 220. Over the next couple of weeks the California State Parks Department will look closely at each park. “Those with high attendance and revenue will likely be safe. At the moment we’re not sure which ones will have to close,” says Roy Stearns, Deputy Director of Communications of California State Parks. “Santa Cruz County has a lot of state parks that have high revenue and attendance.”
Even though the parks escaped the ax this year, the danger has not passed, and supporters fear parks could become an annual target. “There is nothing in place to prevent repeating the problem again next year,” says Bonny Hawley, executive director of Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.
When the budget crisis got into full swing and talk of cuts began, Gov. Schwarzenegger recommended closing 80 percent of the parks to help balance the deficit, including all 19 in Santa Cruz County. As a proposal to save the parks, former Assemblyman John Laird proposed the State Parks Access Pass, which would increase the cost of renewing license plate tags by $15 and provide free access to the parks for all Californians with valid registration, but the governor said he’d veto any new revenues.
“Despite the fact that a popular and solid solution was on the table via the State Parks Access Pass,” says Hawley, “the governor and legislative leaders were not able to agree to support it.”
