Start with our parks

Our editorial last week about saving for a rainy day must have had an impact on Gov. Jerry Brown when he proposed his $164.7 billion budget calling for “restraint” and warning against “exuberant overkill on our budget spending.’’
The problem with the governor’s approach is he got a little too tight-fisted, even for our own fiscal conservative nature. While he is earmarking $2.4 billion for the state’s “rainy day fund,” we think he failed to provide enough  basic support for the state’s roads and infrastructure, college tuition and operation of our treasured state parks.
Gov. Brown’s budget will be hashed out behind closed doors in Sacramento over the next month or longer. When the state’s budget doors are finally opened, we will find out what kind of spending and taxing deals we must live with, including how much more tuition college students will be charged and whether our state parks get to stay open or not.
Our new state senator Mike McGuire took a similar objection to the governor’s proposed park spending, too. McGuire said the meager spending increase of just $16.8 million on parks won’t answer “a long-term threat to our parks operations.” McGuire said the governor’s budget would force state park officials to operate the parks from fast-depleting reserve funds. McGuire’s concerns were supported by both local parks volunteers and by a state park’s official.
We need to tell Gov. Brown that we want more funding for our state parks — especially after many were closed during the Recession and hours of operation were reduced.
North Coast Assemblyman Marc Levine, chair of the state Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, will be holding hearings on the budget and voters can support their parks with comments to http://awpw.assembly.co.gov or by calling (916) 319-2096.
Also, the final recommendations for future parks operations will be released next month by the Parks Forward Commission.
The commission is supporting a “Parks For All” program with updated technology and operations at the 279-park system that has $1 billion in deferred park maintenance. The commission found that over two-thirds (43 million) of park visitors use the parks without paying.
The governor’s proposed boost of $16.8 million is woefully short.
“Our state parks are valued public assets held in trust for all Californians,” Assemblyman Levine said, urging his constituents to “add their voices to the call for enhanced stewardship and support of our state parks.”
The governor’s proposed budget recognizes the recent half-full, half-empty cycles of our economy and tax base. While we endorse his warnings for fiscal restraint, we also ask that he carve out a special recompence for our state parks, which includes Jack London State Park, the Sonoma Mission, Fort Ross, Petaluma Adobe Armstrong Grove, Annadel and Salt Point. All are natural preserves and treasures that offer us recreation, respite and relaxation from our busy daily lives. Funding for our parks is funding for education, historical preservation, cultural heritage, healthy exercise and the kind of spiritual renewal that exceeds the bounds of both church and state.
“We have more state parks in this district than anywhere else in the state of California,” McGuire recently told his new constituents in Humboldt County. “And we have more state parks partially closed than anywhere else in California. We need to fully fund our State Parks system.”
State Parks are beneficial to the district not only for what they directly provide, but also for the visitors and revenue that they attract, he said.
All of the competing needs and priorities can be very complex up there in Sacramento. Whenever any one program gets extra funding  it usually means someone else’s favorite priority is getting cut back.
We think stabilizing our state parks operations is a very uncomplicated place to begin this year’s budget conversation.
If you agree, let Senator McGuire and Assemblyman Levine know about it.
— Rollie Atkinson