Corzine wants to close NJ parks

[+TrailGators]

It's a shameless ploy to get people to buy in to his toll and tax scheme. He needs to cut the budget, so he makes the cuts in high visibility places that will annoy or inconvenience the most people.

 

A after a few months of it, he expects people to come crawling to him, begging for him to implement his plan.

 

As said, It's a common political tactic.

 

To the OP.

The answer (thought most wont') is to access the states budget, and present a citizen plan that works. There are always things that can be cut. If the state has a fleet of airplanes and it's cheaper to fly commercial that can be cut. Vice versa works. If the state buys vehicles both larger and more expensive than needed that can be scaled back They can look at replace them on a more econimical schedule. There are a ton of things that most people would cut long before they closed their parks.

It is common because they are doing the same stupid thing out here.

[+av8tors32]

Video News Story

[jinxeee]

Here is an easy way to send your concerns.

 

http://www.environmentnewjersey.org/action...ourparks?id4=ES

[+weathernowcast]

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QUOTE(brian b @ Apr 4 2008, 09:29 AM) 3405816[/snapback]

Closed will mean closed!!

 

users will be asked to leave by State Park Police if you access the closed parks. That is what the DEP Commish said.

 

Thoreau said it well when, in Civil Disobedience, he wrote: "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is do do at any time what I think right."

 

He also wrote, in the same essay, that "Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?"

 

Just because the land/trails are closed does not make it right. To make a point, one should passively resist the unjust law. A letter writing campaign may work; but also doing what we do (hike) may also work.

 

SUNRISE STEPOFF--AT A TIME AND PLACE TO BE DETERMINED

 

I will be there. And I will assume responsibility knowing full well the possible outcomes.

 

-- does it matter if I am from New York?!?

 

I agree with Thoreau and Brian B!

[+uminski]

Greetings

 

I heard on the news this morning that Cozine is reconsidering his plan to close the parks.

However he will not make the decision until the June deadline approaches.

 

News12.com

 

REgards

 

Uminski

[+briansnat]

Camp out at the State House.

 

They actually encourage you to wear outdoor gear, fishing rods and waders, backpacks, etc... Might be fun just to go and see.

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Greetings

 

I heard on the news this morning that Cozine is reconsidering his plan to close the parks.

However he will not make the decision until the June deadline approaches.

 

News12.com

 

REgards

 

Uminski

 

WCBS News Radio 88 about say 5:15-5:30pm or so yesterday (heard it on my way home) said that Corzine said he's not going to close the parks. The radio claimed he was convinced by a group of 4th graders in Clinton, NJ who wrote him a note about a specific park many of them have gone to with pictures, etc. where they say something like, "by us and others not going, you're losing more money than you're saving by closing the park and doing a disservice to families". I find this quite hard to believe but that is what the radio said.

[+Wayfinders]

Greetings

 

I heard on the news this morning that Cozine is reconsidering his plan to close the parks.

However he will not make the decision until the June deadline approaches.

 

News12.com

 

REgards

 

Uminski

 

WCBS News Radio 88 about say 5:15-5:30pm or so yesterday (heard it on my way home) said that Corzine said he's not going to close the parks. The radio claimed he was convinced by a group of 4th graders in Clinton, NJ who wrote him a note about a specific park many of them have gone to with pictures, etc. where they say something like, "by us and others not going, you're losing more money than you're saving by closing the park and doing a disservice to families". I find this quite hard to believe but that is what the radio said.

 

I'd believe that only if fourth graders could vote

Here is an article from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/nyregion...ml?ref=nyregion

[+MountainRacer]

From the NY Times article provided above:

 

Corzine Eases Plans to Cut Agriculture and Parks

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 17, 2008

 

TRENTON (AP) — Faced with irate municipal officials, besieged state legislators and tractors ringing the State House, Gov. Jon S. Corzine says he is willing to relent on his budget proposals.

 

As a result, state parks and the Agriculture Department would stay open. Aid cuts for towns and cities would not be so steep. Lawmakers would not add pet projects into the budget. And the government would not shut down.

 

While nothing is official until a budget is completed by July 1, the Assembly’s speaker, Joseph J. Roberts Jr., said on Wednesday that legislative leaders and Mr. Corzine had reached a general consensus to ease some proposed cuts in the $33 billion budget.

 

But Mr. Roberts cautioned that other proposed cuts, like those for hospitals, would probably stand.

 

“These are very difficult and very painful, but we have few other options,” Mr. Roberts said.

 

Mr. Corzine has said he was willing to phase in aid cuts to municipalities. But in remarks on Tuesday to the editorial board of The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., for Wednesday’s editions, he said it was “pretty obvious” that plans to close nine parks and the Agriculture Department would be reworked.

 

Mr. Roberts predicted cuts in aid to municipalities would be “significantly moderated,” although he declined to elaborate.

 

“The governor philosophically is right that we should begin to wean some of the smaller municipalities off state aid,” he said, but he noted that “we can’t hit them over the head all at once.”

 

In addition, Mr. Roberts said the governor was “now open to saving the Department of Agriculture and recognizes the symbolic importance that has to a state like New Jersey with the identity as the Garden State, and that the agriculture community views that as their prime advocate.”

 

Mr. Roberts said the state parks would probably stay open, though it was uncertain where Mr. Corzine would save the $4.5 million he said would be saved by closing some of them.

 

Woohoo! Progress, if not victory just yet.

[jinxeee]

progress yes. a victory, NOT!!

 

QUOTE FROM PAPER

 

"New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel, who has advocated for the parks to remain open, said he's not ready to relent.

 

"One of the concerns that I have is that the cure will be worse than the illness," Tittel said.

 

Tittel said he worried that one solution could be the privatization of state parks. He suggested the state instead generate revenue by charging parking fees at state parks or requiring ATVs to be registered with the state for a fee.

 

"There are plenty of options to fund our parks and keep them open," he said. Corzine spokesman Jim Gardner said even if funding is restored, the governor is committed to keeping the budget at the proposed $33 billion mark.

 

"Any line item that is restored ... in one area is going to be offset somewhere else," he said

Edited April 18, 2008 by jinxeee

[jinxeee]

REMINDER

 

CAMP OUT AT THE CAPITAL

 

Nine state parks are slated for closure due to cuts in the Governor's budget. Camping, fishing, swimming, bird-watching and kids programs are threatened. Tell our state leaders to resolve our budget issues in other ways - not by closing public lands!

Please join the NJOA, and all those that make up Keep It Green.

 

Camp Out at the Capitol

 

Wednesday, April 23 at 12:30

This will be a fun, family-friendly event with music, historic re-enactors, speakers and people on horseback. Bring a picnic and homemade signs and wear your outdoor gear.

 

Please help spread the word by 1) forwarding this email to your friends and family and 2) posting the attached flyer throughout your community. More information, including details on bus rides to the rally from your favorite park, can be found at www.NJKeepItGreen.org. rrow!!

[+Renegade Knight]

...Tittel said he worried that one solution could be the privatization of state parks....

 

The problem here is that it takes about as many private side folks to do the same job as the public side folks. Factor in profit, then factor in that you have public staff to oversee the private contractor to make sure they are doing their job. On top of that you lose some or all of the fees the parks generate to the now private firm. Then the "yearly park pass" becomes a problem in that the private parks don't want to recognize them...

 

Privitising things that should be run by the government is seldom beneficial to the public. If it can be privitised successfully, it should questioned as to the need to have it be a government function.

[jinxeee]

Please take a minute out of your day to call the governor's office at 609-292-6000 and tell them to "FULLY RESTORE PARKS FUNDING and NO CUTS IN SERVICE!!!"

It only takes a minute and they do not even take your name.

Many of you have seen the news in the papers that the parks will still be open, however staffing and services will still be cut. This means that there will be no swimming, camping, historic or nature programs offered at the parks proposed for closure (including High Point State Park). This will also mean that there will be no one to maintain the infrastructure of the park and it will become full of litter and run down.

Please take a minute out of your day to make the call.

Thank you!

 

more to come!!!

 

as of right now PARKS ARE CLOSING JULY 1st!!!!!

[+briansnat]

Please take a minute out of your day to call the governor's office at 609-292-6000 and tell them to "FULLY RESTORE PARKS FUNDING and NO CUTS IN SERVICE!!!"

It only takes a minute and they do not even take your name.

Many of you have seen the news in the papers that the parks will still be open, however staffing and services will still be cut. This means that there will be no swimming, camping, historic or nature programs offered at the parks proposed for closure (including High Point State Park). This will also mean that there will be no one to maintain the infrastructure of the park and it will become full of litter and run down.

Please take a minute out of your day to make the call.

Thank you!

 

more to come!!!

 

as of right now PARKS ARE CLOSING JULY 1st!!!!!

 

Right now the staff of Ringwood State Park is responsible not only for Ringwood, but Ramapo Mtn State Forest, Norvin Green State Forest, Long Pond Ironworks State Park, Wanaque WMA and more. There are currently 20 unfilled vacancies in the park staff. They are essentially covering all this land with a "skeleton crew". This was before Corzine's budget cuts. The plan is to cut staff even further. If you think the illegal ATVers and dumpers are having a field day now, just wait until there is nobody left to respond.

 

I made my call.

[+Packanack]

If you think the illegal ATVers and dumpers are having a field day.

 

Perhaps if they upped the fines and allowed half to go to Parks and Half to the local town that enforced, then you would see an up tick. For instance, I know that Wanaque does ATV enforcement, if the fines for illegal ATV use were raised and split there would be an inducement to enforcement. But what do I know, it only seemed logical.

[+Packanack]

http://www.nj.com/mailforms/askcorzine/

 

Som might want to use the link above.

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Camp out at the State House.

 

They actually encourage you to wear outdoor gear, fishing rods and waders, backpacks, etc... Might be fun just to go and see.

 

Make it an event.