Santa Clara County supervisors are gathering information to
determine the fiscal feasibility of taking over Henry W. Coe State
Park, one of 220 state recreation facilities on the governor’s
proposed list of sites to be shut down later this year. Regardless
of the outcome of the information gathering, supervisors should
reject any proposals to take over the park and essentially rescue
state legislators.
Supervisors are gathering information
Santa Clara County supervisors are gathering information to determine the fiscal feasibility of taking over Henry W. Coe State Park, one of 220 state recreation facilities on the governor’s proposed list of sites to be shut down later this year.
Regardless of the outcome of the information gathering, supervisors should reject any proposals to take over the park and essentially rescue state legislators.
Supervisor Ken Yeager, who introduced the idea of a county takeover last week, said the county should only consider running Coe Park with “minimal” staff. He expects the park’s operations could be funded by the Parks Charter Fund, a segment of county property taxes that is unrelated to the beleaguered general fund. Most of the parks and recreation department’s $45 million annual budget comes from the charter fund.
Now is not the time
But is this a good idea, especially when the county is trying to determine how to close a $273 million deficit going into next year before June 30? Meanwhile, the state is looking to close a $24 billion budget deficit.
Supervisor Don Gage, who represents the district that contains Coe Park, said he’s not sold on the idea yet, but he will consider the proposal once parks staff has completed the analysis. He said adding an 87,000-acre park to the county’s purview while trying to determine where to make millions of dollars in cuts could be burdensome.
County Parks Director Lisa Killough said the property value-driven Parks Charter Fund could suffer. Reports earlier this year from the county assessor’s office show property taxes will fall next year due to dropping values. That means less money.
“We already have 45,000 acres of parks, and we have a very difficult time operating those because of (budget) reductions,” Gage told reporter Michael Moore. “To have the county take (Coe Park) on is a burden I don’t know we can do. We don’t have any money.” Gage is correct. What happens if the county takes control of the park, and the budget deficit worsens next year, or five years from now?
It’s the state’s job to fix this mess
The park is a state problem that should be remedied by state legislators, who have done little to mitigate the budget crisis. Rescuing the governor and state legislators after they failed to do their jobs, is the wrong move.
Voters rejected the governor’s plan to balance the state budget when they voted down Propositions 1A through 1E in May.
Now residents are seeing the consequences. Closing state parks, slicing into public schools, eliminating college student grants, health insurance for the 930,000 poor children and, should the budget not pass before the July 1 fiscal year begins, perhaps shutting down the government.
No one wants to see parks close, or any of the other cuts enacted, but voters sent a message, and that message is find some other way to cut. It’s not the county’s job to rescue the state.
