State park hours might get cut

Arizona's 22 state parks that are currently open are safe - for now. But you may not be able to go there every day of the week.

The state Parks Board concluded Friday it already trimmed enough spending this fiscal year, including completely shuttering three parks, to bring the agency's budget back into balance following cuts in funding imposed earlier this year by the Legislature.

But Ken Travous, the board's director, said the layoffs he was forced to impose following $35 million in cuts and cash taken from dedicated funds has left him without sufficient staff to actually operate those 22 remaining parks daily. The result will be that at least five parks - and perhaps eight - will be reduced to five days a week.

Which parks will be affected remains to be decided.

That, however, may not be the end: Travous warned that lawmakers may make further cuts for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. And he said that will force board members to make more difficult decisions.

If that happens, one option would be further cuts in things like paying local law enforcement to patrol state lakes and grants to help renovate old buildings. But board member Larry Landry said that, politically speaking, shutting a park or two might be a better option.

"We're making it too easy for them," Landry said of lawmakers. "We're saying we're going to rape and kill every other program to keep parks open."

Landry said if lawmakers want to take more money from the agency, they should be the ones to explain the repercussions to their constituents.

"I've gotten letters from several state legislators, several who are on Appropriations (committees), who have voted to take this money away," he said.

"Yet they want their parks open," Landry continued. "And I'm saying you can't have your cake and eat it, too."

At one point he even suggested closing Slide Rock State Park near Sedona, a popular site for summer visitors.

Travous warned that closing a park while funding grants comes with its own political risk.

"If it's being done for purely political clout, it's the wrong thing to do," he said.

"The public wants us to do whatever we can for as long as we can," Travous continued. "We need to demonstrate that first."

Only when there are no other options, he said, will the public support closing parks.

"Then they'll go down to the Legislature" to protest.

There is another option: Taking money out of a special fund now earmarked to help communities in urban areas purchase or lease state trust lands to keep them out of the hands of developers.

The money in that account can be used only to match other funds raised by other sources, whether public or private. The result is that, with local governments also strapped for cash, there is close to $95 million accumulated in that fund.

The House already has given preliminary approval to HB 2088 which would divert $20 million of that to offset some of the budget cuts made by lawmakers, with more than half of that going to the Parks Board. But the measure is stalled because, to this point, Democrats have refused to go along.

That opposition is crucial: Because the fund was set up by votes in 1998, the state Constitution requires a three-quarters vote to alter where the cash goes. That's 45 of the 60-member House. But Republicans control only 33 seats.

Democrats contend the move is illegal: Even with a three-fourths margin, voter-approved measures can be altered only if the change "furthers the purpose" of the original measure. And Sierra Club lobbyist Sandy Bahr said using money earmarked to curb urban sprawl to operate agencies that should be funded with tax proceeds does not do that.

Despite that, the Parks Board voted unanimously Friday to support the measure. Landry said he hopes foes can be convinced to go along with a one-time move.

Board members also heard pleas from Payson area residents and officials to reopen Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, one of those closed last month, as soon as possible.

The issue, though, is more than money: Travous said that park was chosen because work is being done on a building there, making it unsafe to have visitors nearby. But Mike Vogel, a Payson city council member, said his city is losing visitors - and the revenue they bring - and would be willing to come up with fencing or whatever the state needs to let people into the park.

At this point the park is not set to reopen until late September.

The other two parks now shut are McFarland State Historic Park in Florence and Jerome State Historic Park in Jerome.