Posted on 05/29/2009 3:20:19 PM PDT by RKV
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget cuts could mean the closing of up to 220 state parks, among them the home of the world's tallest tree and other attractions that draw millions of visitors. Schwarzenegger this week recommended eliminating $70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010. An additional $143.4 million would be saved in the following fiscal year by keeping the parks closed. "This is a worst-case scenario," said Roy Sterns, a spokesman at the state parks department. "If we can do less than this, we will try. But under the present proposal, this is it." Among the parks that could be closed, the parks department said Thursday, are Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, Will Rogers' Southern California ranch and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which boasts the world's tallest tree, a giant that tops 370 feet. Even the Governor's Mansion in Sacramento is on the list. The Legislature last year rejected the governor's proposal to close 48 state parks. But lawmakers said that with California's budget deficit now at $24.3 billion, the situation is so dire that it is likely some parks will close. "Things that were previously dead on arrival are a lot more viable in a crisis like this," said Democrat Jared Huffman, chairman of the Assembly's parks and wildlife committee. ...
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1) All government salaries and benefits cut by 10%. 2) Freeze all new capital spending (like the rail project and stem cell research) so we don't dig deeper in the hole. 3)Eliminate duplicate agencies - like CALOSHA, and repeal the laws that mandate them, ditto CAL DOJ Firearms Agency - their mandates are unconstitutional anyway. 4) Cut the legislative session down to half the year and cut legislators salaries in half too. And so on.
How about cut off all state services from Illegal Aliens.
You save 13 Billion yearly right there alone.
Amen Bro.
can Arnie do the cut without approval from state congress?
Just jump the fence.
These are cutbacks. This is punishment for our not accepting higher taxes. Screw you Arnold.
Should read: aren’t cutbacks. Can’t type today. The mind is willing...
The parks in L.A. are full of bums anyway. It wont matter because once the parks are closed, it’s like placing a billboard sign “come on in fellow homeless, it’s closed to the public.”
Don’t know for sure. What I do know is this is gamesmanship at a time when real hard decisions need to be made. Arnie is failing again.
NO NO! AVERAGE citizens, who don’t work for the state must be punished for not voting for more taxes. State employees, who receive and are paid with tax money must be protected at all cost. Get with the program. It’s Arnie talking! He really knows how to make the stupid party look stupid. He’s a nut!
Don’t confuse city parks with state parks.
California state parks are a wonderful treasure and a trifle cost to the state. This is designed to shock people and convince them to accept tax hikes, rather than cut entitlement spending to illegal aliens and fat salaries and pensions to government unionized workers.
X-ring.
Remember, this is the nut who thought the constitution should be changed so he could run for president. And he’s not even a Kenyan!
I’m with you, but I’d prefier to see more politicians than Arnold screwed.
If they are attracting millions of visitors, that means that millions of visitors are paying to see them. That means they are providing revenue to the state. I'm not sure Arnold is stupid enough to do that. I suppose he's also planning on reducing the number of CHP officers who spend 90% of their time writing tickets which more than pay their salaries and benefits. Maybe he should shut down the Lottery while he is at it?
If, in fact, the state parks are not paying for themselves, then they should be shut down. Either that or the entrance fees should be raised until they do pay for themselves.
Yup, this piece of dung would rather punish the citizens than cut off the illegals and streamline the Government with pay cuts.
I was going to visit some CA state parks on my vacation this summer. I guess now I will have to go elsewhere. I am so glad I moved away from CA 15 years ago.
Yes, and it isn’t going to work. These parks don’t cost the state anything...they’re open spaces for crying out loud, and you often have to buy a visitor pass or pay for parking or something anyway. We’re being punished. The first thing you take away from kids is dessert, and that’s what they’re doing here. They can all go to hell. Close them then, close everything, turn off the damn lights...we don’t care anymore.
So Ahnold is now disporting himself just like any common extortionist - we have a governor just like him here in the unfree peoples’ paradise of Maryland - a little crapweasel named O’Malley who went through five police chiefs in a very short period of time when he was mayor of Baltimore - ‘everyone just keep moving, - nothing to see here’.
Sell them to Mexico. They owned it before might as well own it again.
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