State senator and Orcas Islander Kevin Ranker says it’s possible that Moran State Park is in jeopardy, despite the newly implemented parking passes aimed at bringing in more revenue.
Bleak news from Olympia last week announced that state revenue will fall another $1.41 billion short of earlier projections, following a $4.6 billion reduction in the 2011-2013 budget that took effect July 1. Now Gregoire has scheduled a special session in November, requesting additional five and 10 percent cuts to state agencies.
“Of the $35 billion [previous state] budget, all but $10 billion is restricted,” said Ranker. “Only $10 billion is available for cuts … the only areas we can cut are the areas that matter most to our communities … and that becomes very difficult.”
State parks are expected to become completely self-sustaining by July 2013, with $17.3 million in “bridge funding” allocated in the last version of the budget.
In 2007-2009 state parks was allocated a general fund of $98.5 million; in 2009-2011, just $43 million – and in 2013 that amount is slated to drop to zero.
In 2007-2009 parks raised $36.9 million in fees and donations to fill out its overall budget of $135.4 million. In 2011-13, with the new Discover Pass in place, parks must generate a whopping $116.1 million to meet a $133.4 million overall budget.
With the most recent orders from Gregoire, it’s likely that some of the current $17.3 million bridge funding will vanish, too.
Ranker will serve as the lead on the senate’s Natural Resource Budget, evaluating agencies including state parks, the departments of ecology, natural resources, fish and wildlife and agriculture. While Ranker said he would hate to reduce the parks’ bridge funding, “I don’t see how that’s possible; everybody is going to be cut,” he said.
What that could mean for state parks is still unclear.
Ranker told the Sounder that park closures are a possibility, but staff hours will be targeted for cuts first.
Ranker also said he is still working on calculating a number for a viable, if pared-down, state parks budget.
“Discover Pass is not bringing in the revenue so far that we hope it will,” he said. “We still have to do some tweaks.”
In its first two months of existence, July and August, the pass raised $5.2 million.
Washington State Parks public affairs director Virginia Painter said legislative projections anticipated $64 million in revenue for the biennium. Washington State Parks receives 84 percent of the pass revenue, with the remainder supporting the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state Department of Natural Resources.
“The reality is, we have to raise money from the Discover Pass to keep our parks open,” said Ranker. “We are not going to get rid of the Discover pass.”
Asked for her thoughts on the future viability of state parks, Painter replied, “We’re seeing that we need to continue education. It’s too early to tell. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is saying, ‘We’re not going to do any wholesale closures of parks; we’ll do service reductions and hours reductions.’ Right now they are not talking about closing parks.”
‘Economic drivers’
Ranker called Moran and Lime Kiln State Parks “serious economic drivers for our community” that support countless jobs by drawing visitors nationwide to spend money at county establishments – some continuing a step further to purchase property and pay local workers to build their homes.
“We are going to make additional cuts, and we are going to make drastic cuts,” Ranker said. “But I will not support another all-cuts budget.”
He mentioned closing “tax loopholes” as a potential way to raise revenue in the long-term and possibly reduce the amount of cuts required, saying keeping the parks open is a high priority.
