THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506100023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Gov. George Allen visited Europe this week, in part to promote tourism. He boasted that Virginia is a state of great natural beauty. Mrs. Allen can be seen in TV spots saying you're never more than an hour from a park in Virginia.
Together with their children, the Allens plan a camping trip later in the summer to dramatize the idea of a family touring Virginia via its state parks. But unfortunately, the boosterism stops at the budget. The system is underfunded and neglected. Even more unfortunately, there's nothing new about that.
Virginia has never spent lavishly on its parks. It's been lucky enough to be the site of lots of history and shrewd enough to get the federal government to foot the bill for many excellent parks within its borders. Some of the finest date to the days of the WPA.
Spending on parks has been more or less flat for years. In state rankings of park spending, Virginia always hovers near the bottom. It was 48th in one study, for example. For 1995, a parsimonious $12.5 million is budgeted. A $95 million bond issue in 1992 permitted needed maintenance, renovation and acquisition of land, but that did little more than address decades of deferred care.
The Allen administration has been less than enthusiastic about more support for state parks. On the contrary, its proposed budget called for cuts for some parks including Hungry Mother and Holiday Lakes. It has called for studies and demonstration projects aimed at privatizing parks, spinning them off to for-profit or non-profit groups.
Yet the parks are popular and under increasing pressure. Everywhere what is laughingly referred to as civilization encroaches on park land. The federal parks that served as surrogates for an adequate state park effort are coming under intense budget pressure themselves.
It was reported this week that as many as six federal parks in Virginia - including Appomattox Court House, Richmond National Battlefield and Manassas - could be threatened by cuts in the Republican budget. It plans National Park Service spending cuts of $108 million, about 10 percent.
If tourism is important to Virginia, then preserving, improving and expanding its park system seems like a natural and necessary step. When highways, malls, subdivisions, factories and homes have occupied every square inch of scenic or historic real estate in the state, it will be too late to set land aside for the quiet enjoyment of future generation.
The Allen administration should do more for state parks than talk them up, host photo ops, run slick ads and stage PR stunts. It should put some money where its mouth is. by CNB