CA national parks face $100 million in sequester cuts

California national parks face $100 million in cuts if sequester isn't averted

WASHINGTON — Unless Congress prevents $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts before March 1, iconic national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains will take a financial hit...

California parks that face the ax include Yosemite ($1.43 million in potential cuts), the newly re-designated Pinnacles National Park ($172,000), Death Valley ($435,000) Sequoia/Kings Canyon ($820,000), and Joshua Tree ($305,000).

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130131/NEWS10/301310010/Joshua-Tree-among-parks-facing-100-million-cuts

To put that number in perspective, the operating budget for 2010 was $29 million. That would be a 5% budget cut. Not a big tragedy.

National park advocates pressing Congress to prevent deep budget cuts
Washington Post

"...We expect that a cut of this magnitude, intensified by the lateness of the implementation, will result in reductions to visitor services, hours of operation, shortening of seasons and possibly the closing of areas during periods when there is insufficient staff to ensure the protection of visitors, employees, resources and government assets,” Jarvis wrote in a memo obtained by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, which is working to rally the public against the cuts.

The memo instructs park officials to plan for furloughs and eliminate most of the 9,000 seasonal employees who staff most visitor operations....

“The Obama administration likes to scare people and say, ‘We won’t be able to go to the parks,’ ” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said. “It’s hogwash. There’s no reason we have to open the parks later. They’re going to have to do more with less.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/national-park-advocates-pressing-congress-to-prevent-deep-budget-cuts/2013/02/16/9b9f1b78-714a-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html?hpid=z2

That sounds hyperbolic to me. The budget for NPS is over $300 billion. A 5% cut in that budget will not cause the lay off, or not hiring of, 9000 seasonal employees. A few, yes. A few employees subject to furlough will get an extra month, without pay, off. The cuts would not be a good thing, but it's the hyperbole over it that gets me.

i wonder if the forest service is getting any budget cuts like this as well.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2013 12:40AM by marmot.