Sign Petition today (6/1) to keep CA State Parks open

[jp5]

If you'd like I could recite The Cat in the Hat.

[tstizzle]

i once knew a man from nantucket...

[windoggi]

how about a Finnish haiku?

kevään lopulla
syksyinen maku tulee
pikkupullosta


I think its about someone named Kevaan trying to pull his sinking pickup out of a tule pond. But its in Finnish, so I really couldn't tell you.

[jp5]

The sun did not shine

It was too wet to play

So we sat in the house all the cold, cold, wet day


I sat there with Sally

We sat there we two

How I wi......How I......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[DanWeiss]

[D-wo]

It's funny how these forums take off. My guess is that few parks will be closed and the notion that many will be shut down is just an idle threat. Arnold has threatened this before.

Prop 13 is certainly a catalyst for many of our state's fiscal woes, but not only factor. Our state legislator has had their hands in the pockets of the two largest unions (CTA and prison guards) for years. Another problem is our crazy voter referendums - voters have approved bond issue after bond issue for the last three decades.

SWChandler, I don't think we can blame the Repugs since Dems have controlled our gov't for many a year - Arnold and Pete Wilson withstanding. I'm certainly not a Republican, far from it, but I haven't been impressed with the performance of our Democratic legislative body,

I have nothing but kind words for Mike Colee, who lent me a mast base.

The Haiku was nice.

I think we can all agree that Mike Fink is flatulent. Hopefully he is enjoying his patented off-the-lip and aerial cutback moves in the Eastern Gorge.

nuff said.

[swchandler]

D-wo,

I have to agree with you that our state senate and assembly really haven't been performing anywhere close to satisfactory for some time now. But I feel that the 2/3 majority needed to approve the budget or raise taxes has been a primary source of the state's financial woes, and I honestly think that the Republicans have been regularly abusing the situation terribly for some time now. The power of the minority is simply too great.

Of course there are many other problems contributing our state's problems like term limits, the initiative/referendum process, Proposition 13, the power of unions and untoward gerrymandered districts just to name a few.

I hope you're right about state park closures being an idle threat. Nevertheless, the thought that the state is blatantly threatening to deny us access to our beaches and other locales is unconscionable. My fear is that our governor and the Republican side of our legislature are very capable of the unthinkable. I don't trust that they really care about what really matters to the regular folks in California that find value and purpose in our state park system.

[D-wo]

SW,

Well said.

The 2/3's vote is definitely a problem. Prop 13 is an ugly legacy. etc. There are also some ridiculous Republicans in our state gov't. My point was that by simply blaming the state GOP we don't address the entire scope of the problem. I didn't vote for Arnold and sometimes he seems more like a caricature of a governor than an actual governor. However, I don't think we can blame this debacle on him. Not entirely. Aside from cutting the car reg. fees for five years, his fiscal policy seems pretty reasonable.

[swchandler]

It's interesting that Schwarzenegger heavily leveraged the reduction in the vehicle registration fees to get elected, but once elected, he increased the fee for the State Park Pass from $37 to $125, and the day use fee from $2 to $8. Also, it's notable that Grey Davis, who always gets such a bad rap, actually reduced the fee for the State Park Pass from $75 to $37, and the day use fee from $5 to $2.

Lastly, the Republicans have always been big advocates of the fee for use scenarios in lieu of higher taxation, yet Schwarzenegger has repeatedly targeted the California State Parks for closure, which is to a large degree a fee for use arrangement. The whole closure idea makes no sense to me.

Overall, we've got cheap ass Republicans who don't want to spend a dime more in taxes, and we've an uncaring governor that eagerly wants to strip Californians of the use of our state parks. I wouldn't be surprised if the Republican dogs try to leverage the sale of California States Parks to different private concerns. Leave it to the greedy Republicans to balkanize our wonderful state park system.