Paterson: Deal will keep parks open

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May 28, 2010

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN Associated Press Fri May 28, 2010, 03:28 AM EDT

ALBANY — New York Gov. David Paterson said Thursday that an agreement has been reached to have all 178 state parks open for the Memorial Day weekend.

"The Legislature has made the tough choices to my satisfaction that will enable us to open the parks," Paterson said. His administration had listed 41 parks and 14 of the state's 35 historic sites for closing, along with service cuts at others, to help close the state's budget gap.

Money for DEC

Paterson said negotiations that ended early Thursday morning would provide $11 million for full operations this year, effectively offset by money from the Environmental Protection Fund, which would be cut by about $74 million. The measure is also expected to keep the historic sites open this year, as well as Department of Environmental Conservation campgrounds targeted for closing.

"We've come to a deal to approximately cut about what I proposed in the original budget," Paterson said on WOR radio 710's "The John Gambling Show." "The bad news is it has taken about four days to find $11 million dollars to keep the parks open."

Unhappy constituents

Lawmakers wanted smaller cuts in the fund dedicated to conservation programs like buying land and recycling. They balked earlier in the week at Paterson's proposal linking those cuts to restored park funding. Meanwhile, they've been getting calls from constituents unhappy about park closings, especially with the warm weather and approaching holiday weekend.

The Senate received the draft late Thursday afternoon and planned to review it and take it up Friday, majority Democratic Conference spokesman Austin Shafran said. "We have a tentative agreement on a bill to keep the parks open for the rest of the year."

The Assembly was expected to consider it Thursday night.

According to administration officials, lawmakers still need to find another $2 billion to $2.5 billion in spending cuts to close the deficit and adopt a balanced budget of roughly $130 billion for this year. Democratic and Republican legislative leaders agreed Tuesday to have conference committees of rank-and-file legislators try to find more cuts based on broad parameters that staffs were to identify by Thursday. The budget was due April 1.

Paterson said he has proposed a balanced budget, which differs from Senate and Assembly proposals by about $100 million in health care and up to $800 million in education spending.