[Source: Casey Newton, Arizona Republic] — In their latest effort to solve Arizona’s budget crisis with cuts, lawmakers turned to a woman who couldn’t make a fuss. After all, she has been dead for eight years. Alta Forest, a Danish immigrant who fell in love with Arizona after moving to Fountain Hills with her husband, left nearly $250,000 to the Arizona State Parks Board when she died of cancer at age 82.
When parks officials received the money in 2003, it was the largest private donation the parks system had ever received. They were unprepared for such a large gift, said Ken Travous, who served as state-parks director for 23 years before retiring in June. “We had never received anything of that magnitude before,” he said, adding that he began “looking for something that was big enough to really make her proud.”
While parks officials considered what to do with the money, Arizona’s budget deficit ballooned into the billions. Last month, when the Republican-led Legislature met in special session to cut $140 million from the budget, it swept up half the money in the parks system’s donations fund, which included most of Forest’s donation. “It was like they had kicked me in the stomach,” Travous said. “Surely, I thought, they have some shame. But they’re shameless.” [Note: Read the full article at Widow’s hefty donation to Arizona parks is poached.]
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