Today Governor Schwarzenegger released a revised 2010-2011 State Budget, proposing to eliminate California’s $19.1 billion deficit with deep cuts to health care and human services, and by eliminating CalWorks.
The budget restores $140.1 million in general funding to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s budget! This is better for parks than the January budget, which included ZERO general fund dollars for State Parks - the money was supposed to come from new offshore oil projects. The destruction of our Gulf Coast by Deepwater Horizon has killed any support for such projects here in California.
This latest budget revision would put State Park funding at 2008-09 levels, not great, but still enough for the department to keep Topanga State Park open. Remember, this is a single step. The legislature will have a hard time passing a budget with such deep cuts to popular programs, and the debate will last well into the fall.
Meanwhile, we're waiting to hear if the The CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010 has qualified for the November ballot. That will be the long term funding plan we need to KEEP OUR PARKS OPEN.
You can help! Contact your state legislators through the CSPF Action Page of the California State Parks Foundation.
May 14, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
