Governor's plan would ax funds for acquiring,
developing parks
Published
Online Apr 25, 2004
By KATE CLEMENTS
News-Gazette Capitol Bureau Chief
SPRINGFIELD - Meadowbrook Park in Urbana
was purchased and developed using $381,425 in state matching grants
from the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development fund.
Turnberry Ridge Park in Champaign was bought and developed using
$252,000 from that fund.
Without those
grants, the parks might have been smaller, with fewer features like
playgrounds and gardens. Or they might never have existed at all,
the land on which they sit becoming just another parking lot or
shopping center.
The story is the same for
Champaign County Forest Preserve District's River Bend development
and Salt Fork Preserve; King and Wheatfield parks and the Anita
Purves Nature Center expansion in Urbana; Zahnd Park in Champaign;
and hundreds of other parks and natural areas around the state.
But Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to eliminate
funding for the OSLAD program and the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund
in the year beginning July 1, saying the $34 million is needed to
balance the budget. Environmentalists, park supporters and many
lawmakers are fighting to restore those cuts before the budget is
finalized late next month.
"This is a very,
very important thing," said Marilyn Campbell, director of the
Illinois Audubon Society in Danville.
The
OSLAD program provides matching grants to local governments to
purchase land for parks and natural areas and to develop those
spaces, while Natural Areas Acquisition Fund grants are used to set
aside and care for sensitive environmental areas and pay for the
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and the Natural Heritage
Program.
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
Chairwoman Jill Allread said NAAF monies have already been used to
save 514 habitats in 93 different counties, and those natural areas
are protecting 355 different endangered and threatened species.
However, there are still more sites that are being threatened by
development, she said.
The demand is also
high for the OSLAD funds. According to a new coalition called
Partners for Parks and Wildlife, the program has helped acquire
1,860 acres in the last three years, but that was only enough to
meet about half of the requests made by local governments.
Blagojevich is calling his proposal a
one-year funding "holiday," but some state lawmakers said even that
is too long to wait, and open-space advocates worry that there is no
assurance that the program's money will be restored the following
year.
"You cannot take a 'holiday' from
preserving our state's open spaces and natural areas," said Ted
Flickinger, CEO of the Illinois Association of Park Districts.
"Development doesn't stop just because the state chooses not to fund
these programs. When open space and natural areas are not developed,
and no acreage is preserved for parks and wildlife, the public loses
out."
State Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, has
introduced HB 7285 to restore $20 million to the programs, a move
that is backed by the rest of his Republican colleagues in the House
and some Democrats as well.
"The governor has
proposed taking a so-called holiday on funding the state's open
space programs for at least a year, if not longer, and that's an
environmental backward step the state should not take," Black said.
State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, said
she, too, would like to see the money restored and has been
contacting the governor to tell him so.
"They're really, really important," Jakobsson said. "I'm hearing
from so many constituents in my district that want these programs
restored."
Deborah Frank Feinen, the
Republican Champaign County Board member challenging Jakobsson in
November, is also pushing to save the programs.
"These types of cuts make it harder to
attract new business and jobs to Illinois because we become less
marketable," Feinen said. "Businesses look for states and
communities where the quality of life is high and their employees
want to live."
Rebecca Kinsland, marketing
director for Champaign Park District, said the grants are critical
to keeping up with the district's goal of having a neighborhood park
within one mile of every residence at a time when new homes are
being built constantly and land prices are increasing.
"We really utilize the matching grant funds,"
she said. "Without them, we would not be able to do as much."
In the 2004 community needs survey the park
district conducted, residents listed walking and bike trails, nature
centers/natural areas and small neighborhood parks as their top
three needs, Kinsland said, all of which could be met using help
from the open space land acquisition grants.
"Open spaces and parks and natural areas are important elements in
what makes a community a home. In our busy lives, we need places
that are green, places where we sit quietly for a minute and take in
the beauty of nature," said state Sen. Rick Winkel, R-Urbana. "The
governor's cuts threaten those kinds of places in Illinois."
Even with the programs, Illinois ranks 48th
in the nation for the amount of available open space per capita,
Black said.
"The ability to purchase new open
space would be dramatically affected," if the grants are taken away,
said Dana Mancuso of the Urbana Park District.
But the governor has repeatedly said solving
the state's $1.7 billion budget deficit requires shared sacrifice,
and the "funding holiday" is part of that. He said he is open to
suggestions from lawmakers as to where they think he can find the
money needed to restore the program.
Technically, the governor can not divert the grant money to fill the
budget deficit without approval from the General Assembly, because
the money is in a special fund designated for those programs. It is
not in the state's main checking account.
In
1989, the state added $1 to the real estate transfer tax. Half of
that is set aside for affordable housing programs, 35 cents is
diverted into the OSLAD Fund, and the other 15 cents goes to the
NAAF.
It was set up that way on purpose
because the state was losing land to development, and lawmakers
wanted to ensure that the grant programs would be funded every year,
no matter what, Campbell said.
"The big thing
is this is a dedicated fund," she said. "It should not be diverted
to go into the black hole of General Revenue, because once it goes
into General Revenue, you don't know where it goes. When you tell
people that this is what this money is for, it is highly unethical
to use it for something else."
State Sen.
Christine Radogno, R- Lemont, said she believes an up-or-down vote
on whether to restore the grant programs would pass overwhelmingly,
but the fear is that the diversion of those funds will be part of a
larger budget implementation bill, containing other items lawmakers
want to vote for.
Advocates for the programs
are hoping they can get the money restored before the budget
implementation bills are drafted and avoid that problem entirely.
Public pressure has already helped convince
the governor to back off some of his proposed cuts.
Blagojevich's initial budget would have also
eliminated the jobs of nearly 50 biologists and state employees who
manage natural areas.
But in appropriations
hearings this week, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Director Joel Brunsvold assured lawmakers from both the House and
the Senate that those positions would be safe.
Joanna Webb-Gauvin, of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 31, said
the union is still concerned.
"The
administration has not laid out their plan to fund those members,"
Webb-Gauvin said. "They have said that there will be no layoffs, but
we would feel much better if they would do that."
Negotiations on OSLAD, NAAF and the rest of
the state's budget are ongoing, and lawmakers are scheduled to vote
on a final spending plan before they adjourn in late May.
In the meantime, Brunsvold said $50 million
in OSLAD grants for more than 300 ongoing projects will be carried
over from this year's budget into the budget year beginning July 1.
You can reach Kate
Clements at (217) 782-2486 or via e-mail at kclements@news-gazette.com.
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