LWVOR

The League of Women Voters of Oregon is a grassroots, nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government in order to build better communities statewide. The League appreciates that our message about increasing the land acquisition budget was recognized in the budget passed by the Natural Resources Subcommittee. We continue to believe that it is important to work toward the Oregon Benchmark of 35 park acres per 1,000 residents. We would like in this letter to clarify our other priorities for parks:We believe it is important to continue to work toward reducing the maintenance backlog. However, we do not think it is necessary to have all the maintenance completed by 2014. Your decision to add money to local grants seems an appropriate balance. With such grants, new programs that have been considered by this Legislature can be considered instead by local governments, as was the skate park in Portland a few years ago. The State system should not take on yet another recreation program. Those same local grants can also be available to help fund parks in counties where Federal timber replacement dollars are being cut. We believe that, once parklands are purchased and a plan for their public use is developed through a public process, those parks should gradually be added to the system. However, we believe that meeting the land acquisition goal is even more urgent. Land will never be cheaper and opportunities for important additions to our system are disappearing daily. We believe in public process and have given testimony to the Parks Commission related to land acquisition. We also support Option Package 114, Willamette River Legacy, because of the work that has been done during the interim to bring all the partners together to make this project happen. Because the idea has not been validated with a similar public process, we cannot this session support moving the State Capitol grounds to State Parks. These grounds should be funded by the General Fund and should stay as a part of the Capitol management so that decisions made around Capitol needs can be done as one unit. Because the League has continued to believe the Oregon Coast is a statewide treasure that needs protecting and because we believe good research data is critical to good policy decisions, we also support returning the coastal resource planner to the budget. We realize that the budget has passed the Natural Resources Subcommittee. But we also know there has been some controversy surrounding this budget. We hope this letter helps clarify our position on this budget. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.