Ithaca Journal – Paterson wants parks open for Memorial Day

Legislators balk at taking money from environmental funding

By Cara Matthews •Albany Bureau • May 24, 2010, 7:30 pm

Riverbank State Park Promenade - What will happen on Memorial Day? (Photo Courtesy of F. Andre Fortune)

ALBANY — After refusing to release aid for more than 50 state parks and historic sites, leading to their closure, Gov. David Paterson submitted legislation Monday that would reopen them in time for Memorial Day weekend.

But the Assembly and Senate as well as environmental groups criticized the proposal, which would use an additional $6 million from the state Environmental Protection Fund. It would require lawmakers to approve part of Gov. David Paterson’s budget proposal from January that would reduce EPF spending to $143 million, much lower than either house is aiming for.

Paterson said the Senate and Assembly have to cut elsewhere in the budget in order to open the 41 parks and 14 historic sites and maintain services at 23 other parks and one historic site.

“I have heard from my colleagues in the Legislature that funding state parks and historic sites is a top priority, but I have not heard any specific solutions as to how to pay for it,” Paterson said in a statement.

He cautioned that the bill would “require sacrifice.”

“There is a no free lunch. If legislators want to fully fund the parks, that money must come from a real source,” he said.

The public parks and historic sites have been closed while the governor and lawmakers attempt to reach a budget deal, which has been made more difficult because the state faces a $9.2 billion deficit for the current fiscal year. The governor has been proposing bare-bones emergency budget extenders each week for the current fiscal year, which began April 1, as a strategy to get lawmakers to pass a budget.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he would bring the Paterson’s proposal up with fellow Democrats, who control the Assembly, “but I would expect the members might not like his overall plan. They definitely are committed to opening the parks, and I believe alternatively they might just pass a mandate to open the parks.”

The governor shouldn’t have closed the parks in the first place, Silver told reporters Monday, and said the governor actually is “re-routing $110 million from the Environmental Protection Fund and telling all of you that it is a $6 million program.”

Silver spokeswoman Sisa Moyo said the Assembly is working with the governor on the legislation “to see what we can accomplish.”

Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said the administration was unclear on how Silver arrived at the figures he used.

Keeping parks and historic sites open has been one of the top priorities of the Senate Democratic majority, said Travis Proulx, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn.

“The governor’s current proposal has implications far beyond parks funding. We appreciate that he has responded to our efforts to keep the parks fully operational, and are partnering with his office on language that will open the gates without devastating the EPF,” he said.

Paterson’s bill would reduce funding levels for nearly all programs funded by the EPF by 4.5 percent to obtain the $6 million needed for the parks, several of which have remained open with private or local-government funding. The budget the governor proposed in January already includes $5 million from the EPF for personnel expenses associated with capital projects for parks and historic sites.

“Given this opportunity to vote up or down on this particular issue, I now expect that the Legislature will return its focus to passing a responsible budget,” he said.

The governor’s budget proposes reducing appropriations from the Environmental Protection Fund from $212 million to $143 million. The Assembly’s resolution restored the amount to $168 million while the Senate’s would put the total at $222 million, said Alison Jenkins, Environmental Advocates of New York State’s fiscal policy program director.

The EPF fund was $255 million in 2008-09 and was supposed to jump to $287 million in the current year, but it was only funded at $222 million and was cut during the year to $212 million, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the governor is playing a game of “political chicken” and “picking the Environmental Protection Fund’s pocket to keep the parks open.”

EPL/Environmental Advocates, the New York League of Conservation Voters and the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum issued a statement Monday that said the governor’s bill would “inflict long-term damage on every facet of New York’s environment: capital spending on water quality, farmland protection, forestry, community recycling programs, zoos, aquariums and much more.”

“He’s putting a gun to the head of the Environmental Protection Fund and threatening to pull the trigger if the Legislature doesn’t correct his past mistake of closing state parks,” said Robert Moore, executive director of EPL/Environmental Advocates.

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