Santa Clara County supervisors are in the process of gathering
information to determine the fiscal feasibility of taking over
Henry W. Coe State Park, one of 220 state recreation facilities on
the governor’s proposed list of sites to be shut down later this
year.
Santa Clara County supervisors are in the process of gathering information to determine the fiscal feasibility of taking over Henry W. Coe State Park, one of 220 state recreation facilities on the governor’s proposed list of sites to be shut down later this year.
Figuring out how to fund the staffing and maintenance of northern California’s largest state park will be a challenge, especially when the county is trying to determine how to close a $273 million deficit going into next year before June 30.
Supervisor Ken Yeager, who introduced the idea of a county takeover last week, said the county should only consider running Coe Park with “minimal” staff. He expects the park’s operations could be funded by the Parks Charter Fund, a segment of county property taxes that is unrelated to the beleaguered general fund.
At Yeager’s request, the board will vote on a referral to parks staff to gather information on how much it would cost to run the 87,000-acre park that contains hundreds of miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails, much of which is found in secluded back country. County staff will analyze what costs and staffing would be needed to run Coe Park with service similar to what is currently provided by the state, which Yeager described as “bare bones.”
“Before any board member would support county involvement, we need to know the cost,” Yeager said. “Some of this is to see if the rest of the board has interest. We don’t know exactly what the state’s plans might be. Would they turn over the entire park to us? Is (the state’s) commitment only to close it for the short term?”
After these questions are answered, Yeager said the proposal could come back to the board for consideration.
Yeager’s request was a response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal announced two weeks ago to close 220 of the state’s 279 parks to help chip away at a $24 billion state budget deficit going into next year. Coe Park plus about 50 other parks in the Bay Area are on the proposed closure list. Details of that plan have not yet been publicized, but would likely include laying off state park rangers that currently run the parks, putting gates across entrances, and boarding up welcome centers and other structures, according to a state parks spokesman. The plan would not go into effect until sometime after Labor Day.
Coe Park is located mostly in Santa Clara County, with an eastern portion in Stanislaus County. Its western border extends from Morgan Hill to Gilroy, about 10 miles east of each city’s boundaries.
The county has made significant budget reductions in many areas in recent years, and is in the process of figuring out how to balance next year’s budget with a combination of cuts and one-time funding sources.
A key reason the county is in a financial hole is the state’s deficit, which has cut off a significant stream of usual revenue for county services. But Yeager said the Parks Charter Fund is largely immune to the state’s influence, as it comes from property taxes levied at the county level. Most of the parks and recreation department’s $45 million annual budget comes from the charter fund.
In the past, money from the fund has largely been used to purchase property, but perhaps with the addition of Coe Park – which consists of nearly twice as many acres as the county currently has in parks – the need for more property could be forgone for a couple of years, Yeager said.
“It’s a philosophical debate – should the county be aggressive in purchasing land, or should they use (the charter fund) to open up existing parks?” said Yeager, who plans to run a 10-kilometer cross country race in Coe Park this weekend.
Plus, if the county was in charge of collecting use fees for parking and camping, they could consider raising those fees as an additional source of revenue.
Supervisor Don Gage, who represents the district that contains Coe Park, said he’s not sold on the idea yet, but he will consider the proposal once parks staff has completed the analysis. He said adding an 87,000-acre park to the county’s purview while trying to determine where to make millions of dollars in cuts could be burdensome.
“We already have 45,000 acres of parks, and we have a very difficult time operating those because of (budget) reductions,” said Gage. “To have the county take (Coe Park) on is a burden I don’t know we can do. We don’t have any money.”
Some of the county’s parks are “under utilized,” he added. Some county-owned property is set aside for parks, but has not yet been developed or staffed for that use due to a lack of funds in recent years.
And he said county parks have suffered cuts in recent years. Those include the need to replace lost county rangers with sheriff’s deputies, who are allowed to carry guns and are thus in a better position to make arrests when crime happens on remote public properties.
County Parks Director Lisa Killough noted one complicating factor regarding funding is that the property value-driven Parks Charter Fund could suffer. Reports earlier this year from the county assessor’s office show property taxes will fall next year due to dropping values.
“That has a proportionate effect on our business,” Killough said.
Yeager added that some factors could result in an increase in Coe Park’s use in the coming months. If other state parks are closed, more people may come visit Coe if it remains open. Plus, if the recession continues and cuts into residents’ vacation budgets, they might opt for lower-cost, closer-to-home outings.
