BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: August 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 974 (Evans) - As Amended: July 5, 2012
Policy Committee: Water, Parks and
Wildlife Vote: 10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)
to review, using a specified methodology, state park units
proposed, or to be proposed, for closure and requires DPR to
plan for the reopening of state park units that have been
closed. Specifically, this bill:
1)Codifies the intent of the Legislature that DPR should achieve
budget reductions through implementing efficiencies and
increasing revenue collection or by reducing services at
selected state parks units, and that full park unit closure
should be a last resort.
2)Requires DPR, for any park proposed or designated for closure
as of July 1, 2012, to document and publicly disclose the
methodology, rationale and scoring system used to evaluate and
select park units for closure, and prescribes criteria upon
which DRP is to select park units for closure.
3)Requires DPR to prepare a report to support the basis for park
closure for any park unit proposed, as of July 1, 2012, or
thereafter, for closure.
4)Requires DPR, by July 1, 2013, for any park unit that is
closed for budgetary reasons as of July 1, 2012, or
thereafter, to prepare a plan for reopening that park unit
within one year of the date of its closure, and, by January 1,
2014, and annually thereafter, to prepare a master parks
reopening plan so long as any unit of the state park system
remains closed or is designated for closure for budgetary
reasons.
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FISCAL EFFECT
1)Significant one-time GF costs, likely in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars, to DPR to reassess, according to the
criteria provided by this bill, parks currently designated for
closure, and to report and publicly disclose its reassessment.
(DPR assumes the reassessment, which the department would
contract for with an outside source, will cost $50,000 for
each of the 70 parks proposed or designated for closure prior
to July 1, 2012.)
2)Potential GF costs, possibly in the low-to-mid hundreds of
thousands of dollars, to DPR, to the extent units of the state
park system are closed for budgetary reasons, to prepare
park-unit-specific reopening plans. (DPR assumes $3,000 to
$5,000 per park reopening plan.)
3)Potential GF costs, possibly in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars, to DPR, to the extent units of the state park system
are closed for budgetary reasons, to prepare a master parks
reopening plan (GF). (DPR assumes $25,000 per closed park
unit.)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. The author intends this bill to provide a
comprehensive, transparent process by which DPR considers and
designates state park units for closure to ensure DPR plans to
quickly reopen park units that may be closed.
2)Background. The state park system includes 278 parks and
serves over 70 million visitors a year. The system is
supported by the GF, park fees and special funds, including
bond funds. In recent years, DPR has experienced repeated,
significant reductions to its support from the General Fund.
Most recently, the 2011-12 budget reduced GF support by $11
million, to be followed by an additional $11 million reduction
in 2012-13.
The 2012-13 Governor's Budget proposed to address the parks
funding reduction by closing up to 70 state parks by July
2012. In keeping with this proposal, DPR, working off
criteria provided in legislation, identified 70 state parks
for closure. Many stakeholders, including members of the
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Legislature, have criticized of DPR's process, describing it
as opaque, insensitive to public and private costs associated
with closure of particular park units, and inflexible in its
consideration of alternative cost savings measures. In
addition, DPR recently revealed it has had $54 million in
unreported reserve funds, a revelation that has led to
top-level resignations and dismissals and increased skepticism
of the park closure nomination process.
3)Particularly Loose Statement of Legislative Intent. Existing
law directs DPR ("the department shall?") to achieve budget
savings by closing park units. This bill amends this section
of existing law to change a legal requirement of the
department to a statement of the Legislature's intent that the
department should ("It is the intent of the Legislature that
the department should?") achieve budget savings by closing
parks only as a last resort and after it has taken other
specified actions. The conditional phrasing of this intent
language seems to provide DPR with an unusual amount of
discretion in choosing to follow legislative intent. It may
make more sense simply to require certain actions of the
department.
1)Bill Thwarts Its Own Exemption. The bill explicitly exempts
state park units proposed or designated for closure prior to
July 1, 2012, from the requirement that DPR document and
publicly disclose the methodology, rationale and scoring
system used to evaluate and select park units for closure and
the prescription of criteria upon which DRP is to select park
units for closure. A later section of the bill, however,
requires DPR to examine the exempted parks by using the
criteria from which the bill exempts those very parks. The
effect seems to be that the bill's requirements do apply to
park units proposed or designated for closure prior to July 1,
2012, despite the exemption provided by the bill.
1)Support. This bill is supported by the California State Parks
Foundation and other park supporters.
2)There is no opposition formally registered against this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
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