State Parks

Funding sweeps leave Arizona state parks in shambles

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[Source: John Collins Rudolf, The Zonie Report] — The steady gaze of Ernest McFarland, who in the mid-20th century served Arizona as a U.S. senator, governor and state supreme court justice, looks down on every visitor to the state park that bears his name, a restored frontier courthouse in dusty Florence, built in 1874.

“We will never be perfect in our government, but high ideals can predominate,” reads a brass plaque beneath the portrait, quoting one of McFarland’s favorite sayings. Yet perfection is hardly the word that comes to mind during a tour of McFarland State Historic Park.  Massive cracks stretch from floor to ceiling on more than one of the building’s original adobe walls.  A support beam braces a crumbling exterior wall, keeping the wall and sections of roof from collapsing. In another room, which over the years served variously as a jail, county hospital and prisoner-of-war camp, caution tape warns visitors to avoid a gaping hole in the floor.  [Note: to read the full article, click here.]

Arizona State Parks loses its improvement funding

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[Source: DeWayne Smith, Arizona Republic] — Although the Game and Fish Department was hit quite hard in the recent fund sweeps to balance the state’s budget, Arizona State Parks, which administers the State Lake Improvement Fund, found its coffers empty, thanks to the Arizona Legislature.

According to State Parks Director Ken Travous, the Arizona State Parks Board had to cancel all of its improvement-fund grants for this year, about $4 million.  “The Legislature swept everything except but what we need to operate,” said Travous, whose agency is a favorite place for legislators to find extra dollars to bolster general-fund agencies when times are lean.  [Note: to read the full article, click here.]

Arizona State Parks makes it official: No SLIF grants

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[Source: Diana Parker, Today’s News-Herald, Havasunews.com] — Arizona State Parks announced late Monday that grant applications made this year for $6.5 million in State Lake Improvement Fund monies — including four from Lake Havasu City — have been cancelled because the agency must release SLIF monies to the state’s general fund.  “We had no choice but to cancel these grants as the funds were swept from the accounts by the Legislature,” Bill Scalzo, chair of the Arizona State Parks Board, said in a press release.

SLIF revenues are generated by a portion of state gas taxes attributed to watercraft use and by watercraft licensing taxes.  The funds are supposed to go to water-based recreation facilities, such as launch ramps, bathrooms and campgrounds, lake improvements and law enforcement.  State Parks also relies on SLIF monies for its capital improvements.  “Now the parks are facing many crises as the historic structures and the infrastructures at the parks are deteriorating and we can’t make any improvements,” Scalzo said.

State Parks received 12 applications for SLIF grants this spring.  Seven came from cities in Mohave and La Paz counties.  Among the monies sought by Lake Havasu City were $195,000 for two police patrol boats, $365,000 to dredge the entrance of Bridgewater Channel and $408,342 for a fireboat, lift and dock for the Windsor Beach area.  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

Arizona State Parks grants lost due to state budget cuts

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[Source: Sedona.biz] — The Arizona State Parks department received 12 grant applications this spring requesting approximately $6.5 million from the State Lake Improvement Fund (SLIF).  Unfortunately, because of legislative budget sweeps, those monies must be released to the legislature by August 15, 2008, so the Arizona State Parks Board reluctantly had to release those monies back to the General Fund.

According to Bill Scalzo, Chair of the Arizona State Parks Board, “The State Lake Improvement Fund bill was passed so that tax monies from boat fuel could be used for safety improvements on the lakes, for better law enforcement and boating access.  These safety improvements now cannot be made and we are forced to move the money to the General Fund for other uses.”  “We had no choice but to cancel these grants as the funds were swept from the accounts by the legislature,” he said.

“The State Parks department has struggled since the last round of sweeps in 2002.  At that time the agency was forced to use its capital improvement funds from SLIF ($2.3 million) to operate the parks.  Now the parks are facing many crises as the historic structures and the infrastructures at the parks are deteriorating and we can’t make any improvements.”  [Note: To read the full article click here.]