Sierra Club

Arizona State Parks Board considers cuts

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Reese Woodling, parks board chairman, reacts to news Thursday that some parks would need to close. (Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services)

[Source: Ed Tribble, Channel 12 News] — The latest round of budget cuts earlier this month could close down most state parks. Arizona State Parks Board members met Thursday to look at their options.  State parks are supposed to be tranquil places, somewhere to get away from life’s troubles. But due to budget cuts, the parks themselves are in trouble. “Without these state parks, people will be at a loss on where to go,” says Parks Board Chairman Reese Woodling.

At Thursday’s meeting, board members are making priorities: keep open parks that make money, and ones that don’t cost too much to run.  In mid December, lawmakers raided about $9 million from the park’s coffers. “It’s a horrible situation and sends a terrible message to our kids and future generations that we’re not willing to step up during these tough times,” says Sandy Bahr with the Sierra Club.

No word yet on which parks will close.  But some communities like Lake Havasu City let board members know they would be willing to lease parks so they could stay open. “We believe we could fold those into our existing park system, it’s close to another park, something we believe we could do very easily,” Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen says.

In the long term, the parks department would like to add a fee to vehicle registration. Cars with Arizona license plates could get into parks for free.  Out of state visitors would have to pay.   [Note: Read the full article at Arizona State Parks Board considers cuts.]

Arizona House advances state parks funding measure

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[Source: Tucson Citizen/Associated Press] — Taking a path that critics said would put lawmakers on legally shaky ground, the Arizona House of Representatives on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a plan to keep threatened state parks open by diverting money from a voter-mandated program for land conservation for open space.  The measure aims to reverse recent state budget cuts that have put numerous state parks at risk of closure.  It has backing from parks advocates but is opposed by the Sierra Club, a lobbying group for environmentalists.  Because it would modify a voter-approved law, the Arizona Constitution requires that the measure both be approved by three-quarters of each legislative chamber and further the intent of the voter-approved law.

The land conservation fund, which provides grants for land purchases by local governments, was authorized under a growth-planning law approved by voters in 1998.  With Thursday’s voice vote, the Republican-backed measure faces an expected formal House vote next week.  Passage would send it to the Senate.  However, passage by the 60-member House is not assured as Democratic leaders criticized the measure during debate Thursday.  Even if all 35 majority Republican representatives vote for the bill (HB2088), a three-quarters vote would require backing from at least 10 of the 25 Democrats.

The legislation would return the $20 million to the land conservation fund in 2012, and supporters of the bill said the state money won’t be missed in the meantime because current economic hard times mean local governments can’t afford their shares of the cost of land purchases.  “We have a great opportunity, instead of putting money aside in a fund that we cannot use,” said Rep. Andy Tobin, R-Paulden.

Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he supports keeping parks open but not by tampering with a voter-approved law.  “We see this bill as being illegal and not furthering the intent of the voters,” Campbell said.

The Parks Department has already closed three parks — McFarland Historic, Jerome Historic and Tonto Natural Bridge — but eight others are also listed as candidates for temporary closure because of the funding cuts made to close a big shortfall in the current state budget.  The eight are Fort Verde, Homolovi, Lyman Lake, Oracle, Red Rock, Riordan Mansion, Tubac Presidio, Yuma Quartermaster Depot.  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

Parks and environment are Arizona budget casualties

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[Source: The Arizona Guardian] — State Parks Director Ken Travous said Friday he laid off all seasonal parks workers — about 60 people in all — and suspended payments to local community groups for the state’s share of local projects.  He also has drawn up a list of eight parks the state can close — five immediately and three more in June — to be considered at a special meeting of the state parks board on Tuesday.  The state operates 27 parks.

The board also is expected to discuss more layoffs and other ways to deal with significant cuts in its $28 million budget.  The parks department was hit hard in the budgets passed Thursday by the House and Senate appropriations committees.  Cuts totaled more than $20 million for the current fiscal year, which is more than half over, through agency reductions and sweeps of funds used for parks and other recreational facilities.  Then on Friday morning, Gov. Jan Brewer proposed whacking another $1.8 million from two other funds the parks administer, including a boating safety program.  Travous is particularly bothered that legislative leaders and the governor don’t seem to care that parks are in terrible shape already due to lack of money.  “Our buildings are falling down,” Travous said, “literally falling down.”  Particularly hard hit in the GOP budget is the Heritage Fund, put in place by voters in 1990 to make sure parks and wildlife programs were adequately taken care of.  The Heritage Fund is fueled by $10 million annually from the state Lottery, an amount that has stayed the same since soon after it was started.  The proposed budget takes nearly $5 million from the Heritage Fund and gives $3 million of that to a fire suppression program. “They’re giving it to a program that prevents fires rather than a building that is already falling down,” Travous said.

Sandy Bahr, the lobbyist for the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, said there have been about 30 attempts to raid the Heritage Fund in the past 20 years, but support has been widespread because the money benefits so many local communities and small projects — in many legislative districts.  But this year environmental concerns are being seriously challenged as lawmakers struggle to find money to satisfy myriad pressing needs.  That point was drilled home when Brewer finally entered the budget debate.  She basically traded off more than $18 million in cuts for programs that deal with health care, behavioral health, autism, the deaf and blind, and the homeless for $18 million in reductions largely from environmental programs — water quality, air quality, emissions inspections, and the state’s Superfund cleanup efforts.

The Department of Environmental Quality was up for about $30 million in cuts from operations, staff and fund sweeps. Brewer wants another $14 million chopped from programs.  “We had apprehensions about Brewer based on her voting record when she was in the Legislature,” Bahr said.  “Further decimating DEQ is an example of how her perspective hasn’t changed.”  Environmental groups routinely gave Brewer low marks — some of the lowest in the Senate — in the mid-1990s, according to scorecards released back then.  “The bottom line is environmental protection is not a big priority for the Brewer administration,” Bahr said.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said Brewer’s request to take money from environmental funds and put more toward social programs shouldn’t be seen as anything more than trying to balance difficult choices.  “It’s not a broad generalization about where it leads to policy,” he said.  Bahr argues that environmental programs are really public health efforts — gutting the air quality fund, for instance, has a disastrous effect on people’s health, especially children.  She pointed to a recent DEQ study that shows asthma attacks among children rise when particulate levels go up.  The programs DEQ oversees are designed to help the state meet health-based standards set by law.  Bahr says the federal government likely will step in and enforce water and air quality standards since the state can’t do it.  The FY 2010 budget “is going to be horrible,” Bahr said.  “This is just a precursor of what to expect. It’s going to be even uglier.”

Beyond the budget, Bahr said bills are being introduced that attempt to weaken environmental regulations and enforcement efforts.  “It’s pretty discouraging to see how little progress we’ve made convincing lawmakers that environmental protection is a priority and how important it is to our economy.”

Arizona’s 2008 legislative session: a marathon of missed opportunities

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[Source: Grand Canyon Chapter, Sierra Club] — The 2008 Legislative Session is best characterized as too long with too little accomplished.  After 164 days -– the fourth longest on record -– there was little to point to in the positive column for environmental protection, and much time was wasted waiting for legislators to come to agreement on a budget, the only thing they absolutely have to do.  The Legislature missed a great opportunity to do something significant relative to energy efficiency and did little to promote renewable energy, but they did pass a bill to constrain Arizona’s ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions, a measure that was later vetoed.  “We were very disappointed that in the waning days of the legislative session, Senate leadership was unwilling to bring an important energy efficiency measure to the floor for a vote -– despite the fact that there was strong support for it,” said Sandy Bahr, Chapter Director for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.  “At a time when we should be doing all we can to promote renewable energy and invest in energy efficiency, legislators instead focused on undercutting the Governor’s ability to work to limit climate change.”

Once again, the bad environmental legislation outweighed the good.  The worst of the environmental bills did not advance, however, and several bills were vetoed, including the terrible greenhouse gas bill.  A measure which would have undercut science-based wildlife management was defeated in the House Committee of the Whole early in the session, thanks to the efforts of Representative David Lujan and other members in the House.  Finally, while the budget will not promote a lot of environmental protection nor adequately fund implementation of key programs, the Legislature did refrain from raiding the Heritage Fund.  The Heritage Fund provides dollars for parks and wildlife.  No measures advanced to undercut the initiative process, but, unfortunately, a citizen initiative has been filed that will do so.  The Legislature also did not refer a measure to compete with the citizen initiative on conservation of state trust lands.  “We were happy to see a bill to help protect lands from off-road vehicle abuses advance through the process and be signed into law by the Governor,” said Bahr.  “The bill will provide dollars for law enforcement, mitigation, and restoration of public and private lands.  It can also help facilitate some needed closures of sensitive areas.  This was a small bright light in an otherwise lackluster session.”

Overall, at a time when the country is focusing on energy issues and the need to promote conservation, efficiency, and renewable sources, the Arizona Legislature came up short.  The lack of leadership and lackluster performance is reflected in the grades on this year’s report card.  In the Senate, there were eight senators who received failing grades and ten who earned a “D.”  In the House, 28 representatives — nearly half the body — failed, and another four got a “D.”  On a positive note, one senator and four representatives got an “A+,” which means they voted 100% pro-environment and also did not miss a vote on the key bills we scored.  One senator and 16 House members received an “A.”