[Source: Steve Bodinet, NewsChannel 3] — State budget cuts have already forced three of Arizona’s 27 state parks to close. Fourteen others have cut back their hours. Due to the budget crisis, Arizona could soon be the only state without a state park system. [Note: View the news report at Arizona budget cuts could doom state parks.]
Arizona State Parks Board
Action Alert! Legislature prepares to decimate Arizona State Parks
[Source: Arizona Preservation Foundation] — The cuts proposed in House Bill 2001 of the 5th Special Session are catastrophic to Arizona State Parks. Fund Reductions and Transfers totaling $3,151,100, coupled with Fund sweeps of $6,088,700 will eliminate the agency’s ability to operate. The Legislature seeks $205 million in cuts to begin to address a deficit currently estimated at $1.5 billion. The proposed cuts to State Parks would equate to 5% of their solution, while State Parks currently receives less than 1/10 of 1% of the overall state budget. Additionally, State Parks receives NO money from the state General Fund, but the impact of the park system on the state economy is more than $266 million.
The proposed cuts would force significant reductions in staff, thereby forcing a closure of much of the park system this fiscal year. Without the revenues that the open parks generate, the agency will be forced to dispose of much of the property that it currently manages.
Some of the most problematic cuts include:
- $2,302,100 in reductions and sweeps to the Enhancement Fund, the agency’s principal operating budget, will force reductions of approximately 75 staff and the closure of more than a half of the parks. The resulting loss in revenue will result in a zero balance to begin the next fiscal year (July 2010).
- $1,915,800 in reductions and sweeps to the State Lake Improvement Fund is more than the projected ending cash balance available. These cuts would make it impossible to operate the parks along the Colorado River.
- $3,909,400 in reductions and sweeps to the Arizona Heritage Fund will imperil funding for critical State Parks capital projects (including a water line for fire suppression at Lake Havasu State Park and the extension of Benson water line necessary for the long-term health of Kartchner Caverns), and grants currently under contract.
Please contact your legislator to express your opinion. To locate your legislator, visit: http://azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp
For more information about your Arizona State Parks, visit: https://azstateparks.com/
PDF of this Action Alert here: http://www.box.net/shared/mlqbgbrvsq
Budget cuts could hobble Arizona state parks system
[Source: Mary Jo Pitzl and Casey Newton, Arizona Republic] — Proposed budget cuts to state parks could shut down the entire system by July 1, the agency’s director told lawmakers Thursday. The dire scenario was the darkest to emerge from the cuts lawmakers are considering as they meet in a special session to take another whack at reducing the state’s $1.6 billion deficit.
The cuts are part of a proposed 7.5 percent reduction in the budgets of myriad agencies, according to the budget bill released Thursday morning. But as testimony showed, not all cuts are created equal.
The elimination of nearly $9 million from the various funds that sustain the parks will add up to half of the system shutting down immediately, Director Renee Bahl told the Senate Appropriations Committee. For example, the proposed loss of $1.9 million from the state lake-improvement fund would make it impossible to operate the state parks along the Colorado River, such as Lake Havasu State Park. [Note: Read the full article at Budget cuts could hobble Arizona state parks system.]
Santa Cruz County soccer field grant to go unfunded
[Source: Kathleen Vandervoet, Santa Cruz Valley Sun] — An $85,503 Arizona Heritage Fund grant award announced nearly a year ago to add a soccer field, bleachers and shade structures to Robert Damon Park in Rio Rico was cancelled by Arizona State Parks. All grants on which work had not started were cancelled in February by the State Parks board as a result of budget reductions by the Legislature.
On Sept. 22, some statewide Heritage Fund grants that had been suspended in February were reinstated, said Mary Dahl, Santa Cruz County Community Development Director. She said the Joint Legislative Budget Committee reviewed a proposal by Arizona State Parks and gave a favorable response to re-instating suspended grants. But grants that were cancelled in February, including the one for the Damon Park, did not get funded.
In Rio Rico, the grant’s purpose was to help pay for a soccer field at the 22-acre public park where there are two baseball fields. Damon Park is west of Interstate 19 and south of Yavapai Drive. The money was also to be used to build bleachers and add shade structures over the existing playground equipment, Dahl said. Dahl wrote to Gov. Jan Brewer in late February to no avail. In the letter, Dahl said a groundbreaking ceremony was held last December and recognition was given to the late Ramon Inzunza, a resident who passed away before realizing his dream of having a public soccer field in Rio Rico.
The total cost for the project was estimated at $171,006 and the county’s matching portion was to be $76,003. Others who planned to contribute about $9,500 were: Rio Rico Properties Inc., Rio Rico Utilities, Rio Rico Rotary Club, Farmer’s Insurance, Linda and Walter Lewis, Backflow Technologies, and Joe and Lori Adamson.
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