Posted on 06/15/2009 9:23:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — In a bid to avoid mass closures of state parks, Assembly Democrats on Monday offered a financial trade-off: Pay an additional $15 to register your car, and in return, the state will waive vehicle entry fees at all state parks for anyone with a California license plate.
The proposal, outlined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is part of a sweeping budget plan Democrats aim to unveil this week and vote on as early as next week. ...
But Bass said the majority party would also push for at least a handful of tax increases. In addition to the car tax to keep state parks open, Democrats are also considering a 9.9 percent oil extraction tax for producers ...
Bass also reiterated a Democratic pledge not to raid $2 billion from local governments to help bridge the state's deficit, as Schwarzenegger proposed last month.
Combined, the oil and parks proposals would generate slightly more than $1 billion annually — $830 million from the oil tax and about $220 million in net revenue from the parks plan. But to pass, they require a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature, and thus a handful of Republican votes. That appears unlikely given stiff GOP opposition to taxes in the past, but Bass said she remains optimistic.
"Given the fact we would face the closure of so many parks," she said, "I'm hopeful we will be able to get the votes that we need."
Eighty percent of state parks, and nearly all in the Bay Area — including Mount Tam, Henry W. Coe State Park and Big Basin — would close under the governor's budget plan.
The $15-per-car tax would come on top of a near-doubling of the vehicle registration fee that the state adopted in February.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Close the parks!
Better yet, sell the land the parks are on!
Democrats created this mess and they can shove their car tax. Californians are paying outrageous registration already. They can put they car tax where the sun don’t shine! BTW, none of the Assembly have cut their pay one cent nor have they cut off taxpayer funds supporting illegals.
They’re typical Liberals, they think the taxpayers of CA are too stupid to figure out that the RATs created this mess.
They spent 3.2 million on cars for the legislators the last three years.
Let ‘em walk or ride a bike or take public transit ..
The closure of the parks is the one thing that I won’t like if the gov’t shuts down. As ole Huell says, “They are CA’s gold.” It would be a pity to sacrifice them for union goons and welfare layabouts.
State Parks actually make a profit, so of course they are threatening to close them.
Can't happen? Okay, remember when Detroit produced over 50% of the automobile output in this country? Did anybody ever think that would change?
This is so much BS!
$15.00 per car....save the parks......the parks aren’t going anywhere.
People will still go to the parks. They’ll climb over the fence, cut the chains on the...well...chains.
How about cut the welfare, cut the illegal immigration welfare, cut the paying family members to care for sick family members...cut, cut cut.
Maybe a few like Yosemite but there are hundreds of state parks in California that have nothing more than an abandoned guard shack with a locked box for visitors to put their five bucks into.
How much money would the state save by closing the parks you describe?
I suppose next the Cali. Dems will be advocating that toll booths be set up on every road exiting Cali....
I was at the Sacramento Tea Party held on the steps of the Capitol where these schmucks were hiding inside. They’re reprehensible and stupid since they didn’t get the message being chanted by 15,000 people. The taxpayers of CA are not stupid and know of their corruption and duplicity in creating this mess that is now California. Vote Them All Out
Hard to say but if the RATS say it would prevent a hike in car taxes, I say close 'em. And sell the property.
Not all the parks obviously but start with the ones that are all but abandoned.
How about increasing the user fees on the parks so that those who use them pay for them? Or maybe California can go further down the road of taxes completely unrelated to their benefits. Tax artificial limbs to keep open the far left lane of each highway? Is that a nonsensical match of tax to spending? No more so than charging an extra $15 car tax to allow people to go into state parks.
Those don't cost much of anything to keep open, do they?
The fact is overall, State Parks bring in more in camping and parking fees than it costs to staff them. In fact, park reservations and receipts are skyrocketing now because they are relatively cheap vations in a bad economy. This is just another way to blackmail the voters into accepting higher taxes.
Heck No!..or can you say “Heck No”, and I am not a Californian, but sympathize with you conservatives and libertarians out there!
I don't know. But it seems to me they could make money by selling a lot of them and bring in yearly revenue from the property taxes.
Like I said, a lot of these parks have nothing but a slot in the door of the abandoned guard shack or a locked metal box for people to put their money into. I highly doubt everybody pays.
We do, of course. Ahem.
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