Archaeology

Source:  Arizona Heritage Alliance Alert – March 10, 2019

Dear Friends of the Heritage Fund

Arizona voters approved the creation of the Arizona Heritage Fund in 1990; The Heritage Fund originally allocated $10 million per year of Lottery monies to Game & Fish and another $10 million to State Parks. From 1991 to 2007, the State Parks Heritage Fund served our state well with its dedication to parks, outdoor recreation, open space, non-motorized trails, outdoor and environmental education, and historic preservation awarding 579 grants totaling $24,179,567 and supporting projects in every County in our State. However, as many of us remember, the State Parks portion of the Heritage Fund was defunded and eliminated from statute during the Great Recession.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance was formed in 1992 to help protect and educate about the Heritage Fund which was passed by Voter Initiative in 1990 with nearly a two-thirds majority of the vote. For the last decade the Heritage Alliance has been fighting to reinstate the State Parks Heritage Fund which was eliminated from statute in 2010 during budget negotiations, after 20 years of successful projects!! That’s a decade of lost income to Arizona’s communities. Game & Fish has continuously received their $10 million without a stop.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance Legislative Task Force has been working closely with our Sponsors Senator Kate Brophy McGee (LD28) and Representative Joanne Osborne (LD13).  It is our hope that this Legislature restores the Fund after satisfying all other current encumbrances, and to bring the Fund back to effect in a responsible and deliberate manner.

Senator Kate Brophy McGee’s Senate Bill 1241 (state parks; heritage fund) puts the State Parks Heritage Fund back into statute. There is no dedicated funding attached to this bill, however when Lottery encumbrances are repaid and removed, it will receive its $10 million from the Lottery as intended. It will also open the door for grants, donations, and direct appropriations. This Bill flew through the Senate with a vote of 30-0. It is now in the House.

Representative Joanne Osborne’s House Bill 2701 (state parks;lottery; heritage fund) would restore the State Parks Heritage Fund with $10 million in annual funding from the Arizona Lottery as originally supported by Arizona voters in 1990. HB2701 went through the House and is currently in the Senate and will be included in the Budget process, because it has funding attached.

Source – Andrew Nicla, Arizona Republic – Published February 22, 2019

Arizona parks and other public spaces could soon get millions of dollars of needed funding if one state lawmaker gets her way.

Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, is shepherding House Bill 2701, which would revive the now empty Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund that once gave millions each year to restoring and preserving parks, as well as maintaining and developing other outdoor areas. The bill passed a key committee vote Tuesday.

The fund was established by a voter initiative in 1990 that passed by a wide margin, but was drained during the Great Recession when the state was short on cash. At the time, the fund received $20 million annually and split that money between parks and wildlife preservation. The wildlife grant program, the Game and Fish Heritage Fund, remains funded through lottery money.

Before the parks fund was phased out in 2010, it received $10 million from state lottery money and was divvied up by a commission in a series of grants to cities that applied. This new bill would bring back the program into state statute and secure that lottery money.

Meanwhile, there’s a different bill moving through the Senate introduced by Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, which would put the program into state statute but not secure funds.

If the House bill 2701  is passed, according to the language, it would secure immediate funding and split up the money like this:

• 50 percent to outdoor recreation, open space development, restoration or renovation projects.
• 30 percent to historic preservation projects.
• 10 percent to non-motorized trails.
• 10 percent for outdoor and environmental education.

Earlier attempts to revive fund failed

That money is crucial to many now-halted projects that once got funding from the shuttered grant program. Between 1991 and 2006, the program awarded more than $24 million through 579 grants. Phoenix received $3.6 million from 48 grants.

Ever since the fund went away, both Democrats and Republicans have crafted bills in hopes of reviving it, but those never made it far at the Capitol because lawmakers couldn’t find room in the budget.

On Tuesday night, Osborn pitched the idea to a groggy House committee, which seemed delighted to talk about something everyone agreed on after bickering for hours over water law. During her presentation to the committee, Osborn called the bill “our bill,” a nod to the wave of support from voters in the ‘90s, and said the time to reinstate it was well past due.

“It really is our bill because there were many voters of the state that wanted this to go forward,” Osborne said, adding that this is the “last item from the recession to be put back into the lottery funding.”

This is Osborne’s first session at the Capitol and she chose to support this, she said, because she felt obligated to help preserve the heritage and history of the state her family has been in since the 1800s.

“It’s the people of Arizona that wanted this for so long and I’m happy to be able to put it (the fund) back in its rightful place,” Osborne told The Republic.

Osborne and Brophy McGee were approached by members of the Arizona Heritage Alliance, a non-profit aiming to protect the fund. The group searched for lawmakers who could likely pass the measure, after spending months earning support from state lottery and Game and Fish officials and other stakeholders. So far, both bills have earned near-unanimous support in committees, advancing farther than most in previous years. But regardless of that support, there appears to be no certainty of refilling the account right now. Even if the House bill passes, it won’t necessarily guarantee complete immediate funding because it relies on lottery money, which is still tied up in other financing. When the fund was swept away, it carried some debt to the lottery with it. If funding was secured, it could take many years to fully repay.

Without money, rural projects languish

The longer the fund remains dry, according Lani Lott, the Alliance’s executive director, the longer some projects in rural communities outside of the state’s larger counties could remain on hold. Lott said many local and regional parks haven’t been able to make improvements, many parks are needing deferred maintenance and new parks that are coming may also need help.

“Everything has just been kind of not moving forward on certain levels in terms of those historic preservation projects and other improvements,” Lott said, adding that some grants had to be given back.

“But we have a lot of support from organizations across the state who’ve all seen the value of the Heritage Fund when it was in place,” Lott said. “I think if people love parks, historic preservation, visiting state parks in Arizona, I’d encourage them to support this.”