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By Axing Public Parks, Politicos Are Stealing the People's Property
"Sorry, we're closed." In one of the saddest signs of the times, this message is popping up all across the country, as governors and legislators are cutting off funds (and shutting off access) to one of the finest, most popular assets owned by the people of our country: state parks.
More than 6,600 of these jewels draw some 700 million visitors a year to their grand vistas, historic sites, abundant wildlife, majestic forests, cascading waters, expansive beaches, nature trails, campgrounds, educational centers and lodges. Parks are a tangible expression of America's democratic ideals, literally a common ground for every man, woman and child to enjoy, learn, absorb ... or just be. Especially for the middle class and the poor — the great majority of our people who can't jet off to luxury resorts for a getaway for vacation — these spaces offer a form of real wealth, something of great value that each of us literally "owns," knitting us together as a community and nation.
Yet so many spiritually shriveled, small-minded and short-sighted state officials are snuffing out this invaluable, uniting social force. They are stupidly treating parks as nothing but a budget number or a piece of the "nanny state" to be axed in the name of ideological purity. Worse, they are sacrificing parks in order to keep the tax-dodging moneyed elites who pay for their campaigns from paying even a dime more in taxes.
The majority of states have been closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at others or simply handing the public's asset to profiteering corporations. Idaho's governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state's parks last year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks; Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.
As Woody Guthrie said of outlaws, "Some'll rob you with a six gun/Some with a fountain pen." This is theft by the in-laws, the political insiders who're stealing The People's property — stealing from America itself.
Check out the robbery in my state of Texas.
Things tend to be bigger here — bigger hair and hats, for example, bigger money and egos ... and bigger thievery by political con men.
Last year, the gang of GOP hucksters who control our state government pulled off a huge heist, covering it up with an equally huge boast: "We balanced our budget. Not by raising taxes but by setting priorities and cutting government spending," bragged the gang leader, Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry. How'd they fill the $27 billion shortfall that they themselves had created by their previous budgetary mismanagement? By stealing money from already poorly funded programs — from education to parks — that ordinary Texans count on.
People here are justly proud of their 94 parks, but many of these treasures are now understaffed, open fewer hours and in disrepair because the system's budget was whacked by 21.5 percent in order to spare the wealthiest families and corporations in this enormously rich state from paying a teensy bit more in taxes.
But that was only part of the robbery. A state sales tax on sporting goods, dedicated by law to help finance the people's parks will generate about $236 million this year and next. But the governor and his legislative henchmen raided this pile of revenue, filching two-thirds of it for the state's general fund so they could claim that they "balanced our budget (without) raising taxes."
To replenish some of the tax money taken by The Perry Gang, the head of parks for the Great State of Texas is now engaged in a shocking spectacle: public begging. In a video played at 11 December press conferences in state parks across Texas, the chief of a major state agency is reduced to shaking a tin cup, pleading for $4.6 million in donations. "Please act now to help keep our state parks open for all Texans to enjoy," he beseeches.
These right-wing politicians howl that they want to shrink government — but they are the shrunken ones, and the narrowness of their vision is diminishing what it means to be American.
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19 Comments so far
Show AllHow and why we lost sight of "the commons" I'll never know. Remember our founding fathers (the 'commonwealth' of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia). If you want to read more about a group dedicated to promoting and trumpeting all that we share, read my interview with them. Perhaps the Internet fight will wake us from our sleep?
http://wisdomvoices.com/on-the-commons-its-about-we-not-just-me/
"Joanne Boyer"
Ask the Cherokees (or any other native community) about how this government works.
This is nothing new and if anyone supports the corporate democrats, republicans, or libertarians (and they are all corporately controlled) , then they are supporting the global assault on life
for monetary profits.
Totally agree.
Michigan has come up with a better way to fund parks. When you get your license, you can opt to pay twenty-five bucks more and get a free admissions pass to all state parks. Most people pay the extra--even if they don't visit the parks--because they value them.
Also, we are lucky in that all revenues from natural gas production on state lands go into a fund destined to purchase property deemed valuable from an ecological or public use point of view. This measure was passed by referendum of the people and cannot be changed at the whim of state legislators.
Of course, tourism is important for this state and people realize taking care of the environment brings in money rather than requiring it. You'd think Texas might have thought of that, too.
That's actually a much better idea than the Kunstlerfuckism above you in this thread, and it would probably work here in California. Unfortunately, I doubt that Brown here would propose it as compared to a single issue tax that is quite likely to get voted down by the fossilized embittered elder types here, allowing Brown to shut down more parks anyway while allowing him to say that he tried and he should still be supported anyway.
Basically, it's a win win for everyone but everyone who comes after him and his ilk.
"Also, we are lucky in that all revenues from natural gas production on state lands go into a fund destined to purchase property deemed valuable from an ecological or public use point of view."
What is good about natural gas production on state lands? And tell me, does the purchased property deemed ecologically valuable end up being degraded by natural gas production too?
More bad news - like a death knell.
If there is a silver lining, it might be that sequestering designated areas as fit for enjoyment was always a stop-gap - a form of denial, because implicit in the idea of parks is the other idea -that where we live and work is unfit for enjoyment.
The Worldshift required in thinking to save ourselves can increasingly be put into action - it's time to fix up our own backyards.
Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" continues to amaze in its prescience.
Manysummits
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~ PostScript ~
Julie and I were just talking about our trip to the US (West coast & desert southwest with our under two year old son Michael - 2005.)
We like you guys - and we are more than distraught at what's happening to you and your country.
We know also it's coming this way - to Canada.
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It's not just state parks that are being cut, We have major cuts being proposed in city parks in Portland OR, including the closing of two community centers and one public swimming pool, closing of all public rest rooms in the parks and substitutin porta-potties for them. (Just the latest "privatization" of public properties.)
Neighborhood school closings are another theft of public space.
It's all a result of inadequate tax funding everywhere. It's not just tax cuts for the wealthy, it's the fact that millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed, which means we aren't paying as much in taxes as we have in the past.
What part of "smaller government" is it that we don't understand? You didn't really think they were ever going to slash their own salaries or staffs did you?
Thank you Jim Hightower, a true gem in my home state. Keep up the good work speaking truth to power.
This is NOT a state by state issue.
This is the further manifestation of the corporate agenda which pours money into warmongering, pollution, and corrupt banks.
$$$$$$$ This is part of the agenda brought about through the actions of the republicans and the democrats together. $$$$$$$
So-called Free Market Capitalism REQUIRES the reduction of the costs of resource maintenance and people and nature are merely resources to be exploited for corporate profits.
ANY politician who receives money from corporations must be SHUNNED. If a politician belongs to a corporate owned party, they are part of the problem.
Mr. Hightower clings to lesser-evilism and (AGAIN) wants us to focus on the republicans, but this is a worldwide problem which is supported by democrats, republicans, and libertarians.
He would have us focus on an open sore as if it is a dermatological problem, when, in fact, it is the result of systemic decay.
One more reason for Gaia to get rid of our disgusting species as soon as possible, by the laws of physics.
Trylon
I first heard the call (70's) when they were timbering trees in the national forests.
Today, the parks have become a way-station for the working homeless.
Hightower never mentions capitalism; the pathogen
or
points a finger at the virus called the democratic party.
He is as infectious as Perry.
Buck, you apparently don't read Hightower, OR, you are choosing to lie about him. Infectious as Perry? Good grief.<
Hightower can be faulted for not being hard enough on Democrats, or being pointed enough in attacking the emergent oligarchy, plutocracy, fascism, or whatever the hell else you want to call it, but if the MSM had more Hightowers, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Hightower is a nonstop stream of darts aimed at republicans. His perpetual solution is to back democrats. I consider "fix the system within the system" a steaming pile, and backing the democrats self delusion or outright lying. Hightower is nothing more than a barker outside a circus tent and now you stand outside his tent barking.
We are where we are because of a MSM full of Hightowers.
The proof is in the pudding and guess what; you're the pudding.
Emergent? Where have you been?
If my private property manager squandered the money I paid them and consequently denied me access to my own lands, I'd fire her/him. Time to do the same to our public property managers!
The good news is that the environmental impact from visitors will be lessened, and those closed areas might have a chance to recover. The bad news is, all those visitors will now overwhelm the few existing open parks.
Won't be long before they start selling naming rights to corporations like they do for ballparks. "The Halliburton/Exxon Big Bend Park" (watch out for bulldozer crossings).
I posted this yesterday on the same topic:
One of these corporations tried to build a "small" "luxury" HOTEL right in the PUBLIC park down the street from my house. The citizens of my small beach community in California were APPALLED at this and we ALL voted it down...For now, anyway; I'm sure many more attempts will be made. Thoroughly disgusting.
Here in St Petersburg, they put up a new toll booth to get into the "public" park. They wanted to charge $8 per day to get in, but they "compromised" and cut the rate to $5. Other than the road tolls, this has been a free public park since the pirates were sailing into the bay. A season pass for the road tolls is $50 per year. It's another $75 per year to get into the park. So for those who would buy both season passes, it now costs $125 per year to go to our previously "public" park. It's nice that the GOP can give so many tax cuts for the wealthy, aka "job creators", to bring unemployment down in the state, except that it's not working. Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Tax cuts for the wealthy equate to higher fees for everything we do. I can't afford to take my dogs to our previously "public" park anymore since it has effectively been privatized. They took the only public dog friendly beach away from us with this...