Arizona State Parks Board

Open letter to Arizona’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee

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Dear Chairman Kavanagh and members of the JLBC:

The Arizona Heritage Alliance’s mission is to protect and educate about the Heritage Fund, its purposes, potential, and accomplishments, and to ensure that the Fund’s money is spent as it was established by initiative statute concieved for and by the people in 1990.

With that mission in mind, we respectfully request that you review favorably the Arizona State Parks Board’s budget transfer request which includes the return of Heritage Fund grant money to its rightful grantees from the 2009 grant cycle.  That grant money already awarded and in process of going on the ground was “frozen” by the Board in February 2009 following deep cuts made by the Legislature to the Arizona State Parks Budget.  The Legislature then permitted the Parks Board to use “other funds” (including Heritage Funds) to make up for the sweeps.  Heritage Fund grant awards were therefore “frozen” in February 2009 by the Parks Board.  This action caused great hardship to the grantees, their projects which included many historic monuments, and to their communities.  At the August Parks Board meeting, its members voted to “unfreeze” that grant money pending a positive review of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance is hereby adding its voice to that of the Arizona State Parks Board in requesting that you permit them now to restore that funding so that they can release it to the awarded grantees at long last.

We appreciate this opportunity to share our concerns with you with the hope that the Arizona State Parks Board will be able to honor its commitments to those many grantees.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth T. Woodin
President
Arizona Heritage Alliance

Action Alert! Call/write JBLC before Tuesday 2:30 p.m., September 22

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For Arizona State Parks to reinstate and refund the Heritage Fund grants that were de-obligated (i.e., reneged) in February 2009 (1%-95% completed), the JLBC (Joint Legislative Budget Committee) has to approve the Arizona State Parks fund transfers.

JLBC will meet on Tuesday, September 22 at 2:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room.  However, there is no call to the public. Heritage Fund advocates must relay this message to the Committee prior to Tuesday afternoon.

Below is the list of JLBC Committee Members with their e-mails and phone numbers.  If any of the Committee Members are your senator or representative, please call and say that you are a constituent.  If none represent your district, please e-mail all and explain why this matter is important to you as an Arizona citizen.

Here is the suggested message: “Please give a favorable review to the Arizona State Parks Board request to transfer monies between its own funds to backfill sweeps and transfer that were enacted as part of the FY2010 Budget.”

If you have any questions, please contact Janice Miano, Director of Administration, Arizona Heritage Alliance: mail@azheritage.org or 602-528-7500 (office). Thank you!

Senate Member (The Honorable…)

  • Paula Aboud, paboud@azleg.gov, 602-926-5262
  • Amanda Aguirre, aaguirre@azleg.gov, 602-926-4139
  • Chuck Gray, cgray@azleg.gov, 602-926-5288
  • Jack Harper, jharper@azleg.gov, 602-926-4178
  • Russell Pearce, rpearce@azleg.gov, 602-926-5760
  • Steve Pierce, spierce@azleg.gov, 602-926-5584
  • Rebecca Rios, rrios@azleg.gov, 602-926-5685
  • Jim Waring, jwaring@azleg.gov, 602-926-4916

House Member (The Honorable…)

  • Andy Biggs, abiggs@azleg.gov, 602-926-4371
  • Olivia Cajero Bedford, ocajerobedford@azleg.gov, 602-926-5835
  • Cloves C. Campbell Jr., clcampbell@azleg.gov, 602-926-3042
  • Dr. Matt Heinz, mheinz@azleg.gov, 602-926-3424
  • John Kavanagh, Chair, jkavanagh@azleg.gov, 602-926-5170
  • John McComish, jmccomish@azleg.gov, 602-926-5898
  • Rick Murphy, rmurphy@azleg.gov, 602-926-3255
  • Vic Williams, vwilliams@azleg.gov, 602-926-5839

Jerome chamber petitions for reopening of state park

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[Source: Philip Wright, Verdenews.com] – Chamber of Commerce president Tom Pitts has taken the lead in trying to get the Jerome State Historic Park reopened.  Opened in October of 1965, the Douglas Mansion was operated continuously as the State Historic Park until Arizona State Parks closed it, suddenly, on Feb. 26.  Although the parks board originally targeted the park for closure due to budget constraints, when it finally closed the tourist attraction, it gave “maintenance and repairs” as the reason. Unfortunately, no work or bidding has taken place on the mansion.

Pitts spoke to the Jerome Town Council Tuesday night to update them on his and the chamber’s efforts to reopen the park.  “I put together a petition calling for the reopening of the park,” Pitts said.  He said more than 3,000 signatures of Arizona residents had been collected.  Other signatures from throughout the United States and many other countries were included on the petition.  With the petition, Pitts included a fact sheet based on a 2007 study done by Northern Arizona University on the economic impact of Arizona’s state parks.

Nearly 2.3 million people visited Arizona state parks in 2007, spending more than $162 million.  The Jerome State Historic Park generated more than $7 million income for Yavapai County.  The total visitors to the park during that year was more than 60,000, with 72 percent of them from out of state. Pitts told the council that state officials are actually starting to look at it.  “We’re anxious to get it reopened,” he said.

Approved Arizona state parks budget called ‘not sustainable’

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[Source: Florence Reminder] — “Today (Monday) the Board approved the 2010 operating budget down from $26 million to $19.3 million,” State Parks Board Chair Reese Woodling said.  “All of that money now is coming from conservation taxes and park-earned monies with none from the state’s General Fund budget.  This is not a sustainable budget to keep the parks and programs operating, so we have hard decisions about how to fund each one.”

“This $19M is also contingent on the enactment of the Budget Reconciliation Bill which would authorize the agency to use certain special funds for normal operating. Heritage Fund grants were recommended to be reinstated, but that is also contingent upon a favorable Joint Legislative Budget Committee review to allow internal fund transfers,” said Woodling.

“Now our staff will be looking for all different types of partners to keep the parks open in these rural communities.  In September our staff will be presenting scenarios for salvaging the state parks and programs.  We will have to drastically reduce our expenses to meet the extremely low budget presented today,” said Renée Bahl, the State Parks executive director. [Note: To read the full article, click here]