Proposals Surface to Keep 50 State Parks Open

Byline: Associated Press/Tracie Cone & Jason Dearen

FRESNO (AP) — With a July 1 deadline approaching for dozens of California state parks on a budget closure list, legislators are scrambling to keep them open, with bills meant to raise money through specialty license tags and improved entrance fee collections.

However, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said he has found existing revenue sources that could help defray the $22 million shortfall in operating costs. He hopes his California Senate bill will help keep at least 50 of the 70 parks on the list from closing.

“The notion of closing 70 state parks is penny-wise and pound-foolish,” said Simitian, chairman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation. “It doesn’t make sense to take what may prove to be irreversible actions if we go down this path.”

The state has a total of 280 parks.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation says 35 of the 70 parks on the closure list either have deals in place or in the works to stay open. The department has been working for months to find nonprofit groups, municipalities and other entities to take over maintenance, concessions and the other duties needed to keep the parks open.

Simitian’s bill proposes using existing state fees and funding sources to cover some park operating costs and improvements. For years, the parks department has used its own budget dollars to pay for road improvements, maintenance and traffic enforcement inside parks, when instead it could have used money from the $500 million motor vehicle license fee account to bridge a $15 million gap, he said.

At least 20 of the parks are on the closure list because of $1.3 billion in needed repairs to water and septic systems, according to department estimates. Simitian’s bill proposes appropriating $10 million annually as long-term loans from the federal Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund to repair the facilities. He said $21 million of it could come from local assistance program funding, which is a pool of state vehicle registration fee money earmarked for construction of off-road vehicle parks on federal land that can be redirected to state parks.

“Our goal is to get past the year-to-year crisis management of state parks and get together the beginning of a plan that will help us rebuild state parks,” Simitian said.

The bill, announced May 8 with Sen. Noreen Evans, incorporates a suggestion made by the Legislative Analyst’s Office to hire non-sworn officers to perform duties such as guiding school tours and collecting entrance fees now handled by higher-paid rangers. It also seeks to create a group insurance pool to reduce liability for the nonprofit agencies that have stepped up to run some parks.

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