Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Arizona isn’t the only state faced with closing its parks to help ease budget shortfalls. Here’s how some of our neighbors are handling similar situations.
 
California
Facing a $20 billion deficit, California closed some state parks in the winter to save $14.2 million in cuts, but the most popular beaches in southern California stayed open with most or all of their services. That includes state beaches from San Onofre to Bolsa Chica. However, these beaches still faced occasionally fewer patrols, lifeguards, public programming and restroom/cleanup maintenance. Also included was less testing of beach waters for cleanliness.

Protesters marched 365 miles for 48 days across California to persuade the governor to bring back a tax on the wealthy that he had previously cut, as well as rescind the 2/3 requirement for the state Legislature to pass a budget, in order to help save schools and parks. It ended April 21 in front of the Capitol steps in Sacramento with 2,000 people.

Also, environmental groups recently turned in 760,000 signatures (almost double what was needed) to put an item on the November ballot that would charge California motorists $18 per year for parks. It would raise $500 million a year but exclude commercial trucks from the fee.


Colorado
State Senator Moe Keller, chairwoman of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, has proposed letting parks loose from state support altogether and letting them charge their own fees.

The Trails and Open Space Coalition, a 13-year-old nonprofit in Colorado Springs, wants to create a special regional authority on city and county parks that would have taxing authority to raise money for them. They’re calling it a “sustainable parks initiative.” It requires approval by the Colorado state legislature, and wouldn’t go on the ballot until November 2011.

The coalition’s executive director, Susan Davies, told the Colorado Springs Business Journal: “The city cut its general fund support for the parks budget by 84 percent from 2008 to 2010, while the county’s budget has shrunk by 68 percent. We don’t think that those numbers are going to improve much.” One estimate says Colorado is facing a $1.5 billion deficit overall.


Nevada
In 2009, and again in February of this year, Nevada debated whether to close its state parks. Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, considered closing all of Nevada’s state parks to help close the estimated $900 million budget gap because, he said, the other choice was laying off thousands of teachers. Governor Jim Gibbons, however, was against closing the parks because he feels they are huge tourist attractions.

Currently, Nevada has reduced the state parks division’s budget by 10 percent, but all the state parks remain open. According to a state-sponsored study in 2003, Nevada’s state parks generate about $62 million for the state, a large profit over the $5.3 million the state puts into the parks each year.
 
Utah
Republican Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill in March authorizing the state to use eminent domain to take back land owned by the federal government, which owns more than 60 percent of Utah’s land. The goal is to use some of the coal-rich (read: valuable) land to generate funds for the state’s under-funded public schools. Some people worry that this move could tempt other states to try to reclaim and develop their national monuments.
 
— PHOENIX magazine staff