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Bodie, Mono Lake State Tufa Reserve endangered by budget cuts |
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Friday, 05 June 2009 |
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 File Photo. One of the houses in the ghost town of Bodie
Geoffrey McQuilkin, executive director of the Mono Lake Committee, attended the meeting in Sacramento along with representatives from 150 other parks.
“It’s a bad economic policy to close something that brings in revenue for the state and helps our rural economies survive and recover,” McQuilkin said. “The proposal actually includes every park in the Sierra district.”
California contributes roughly one tenth of one percent of its general fund budget toward the costs of operating its state parks. Because state parks generate billions in revenue – about $6.5 billion according to a 2002 study – there is widespread opposition to the proposal.
“They’re going deeper in the hole if they do this,” McQuilkin said. “In Mono County, we all suffer because we lose this economic driver for people to come here.”
At the Mono Lake Committee office in Lee Vining and on its Web site, more than 900 letters in protest were submitted to the governor along with a couple hundred petition signatures.
As of press time, the state had not made any final decison.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 June 2009 )
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