No Shame: The Same Conservation Groups Who Stole State Parks Funding Now Demand Restored Funding

“Keep It Green” Coalition Spent Over $1 Million On Ad Campaign That Misled Voters

As the Director of the NJ State Park Service now coping with the reality that our entire Parks capital budget will be completely eliminated beginning July 1, 2015 as a result of the YES vote I can say this is the darkest day I have faced in my professional career. Worse than Superstorm Sandy. ~~~ NJ State Parks Director Mark Texel

NJ Spotlight ran a story today about the dire state of funding for State Parks, see:

• Park advocates urge Murphy to end funding shortfall

These conservation groups are now park advocates? They stole parks money! They benefited from some of that money for their own organizations.

• Green Greed – Reduced Funding For Public Lands, More Money To Private Groups

I think this is the third article NJ Spotlight has run on the same story, based on a report by conservation groups. So, I sense that it is part of the same corrupt foundation funded driven news coverage, e.g. Wm. Penn Foundation funds a campaign and funds news coverage of it.

Once again, incredibly, despite discussing historic parks funding levels, Spotlight failed to report the fact that previously Constitutional dedicated funding for State Parks was terminated and those funds were diverted (stolen) by the Keep It Green campaign and that those same private groups benefited financially from new “stewardship” funding.

In other words, they feathered their own organizations’ nest at the expense of State parks and they lied to the voters about that.

Any restored funding policy must begin my ending the allocation of funding to private groups and their “stewardship” projects. Keep It Green must give back the funding they diverted!

I’ve written this story many times and so has the NJ press corps, e.g. see this Bergen Record  story:

• Budget cuts doom state parks to disrepair“

Some environmentalists say the amendment had an unintended but severe impact on the Natural and Historic Resources capital budget. The budget had been replenished each year from the same tax, a dedication secured in a prior, 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment. That amendment was to provide a “reliable and stable source of funding” that would enable the DEP to make “long-term investments in the state park system,” according to a 2013 draft of the state’s Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.

It provided about $15 million annually, and would have doubled to $32 million in 2016. ...

Mark Texel, head of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, called it a “massive blow” and said in a Facebook post soon after the vote that it was “the darkest day I have faced in my professional career.” [**Note: he called it “worse than Sandy“]

“We had a plan to really tackle some of these major capital projects that had been deferred for many, many years,” Texel said. “And we were making progress. Suddenly now our capital budget is having the legs cut out from underneath it. … It was disappointing, I admit. I was very disappointed. […

Bill Wolfe, director of the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said he didn’t believe that voters in 2014 knew this would happen.

He accused NJ Keep It Green of “intentionally, knowingly” stripping state parks of capital funding to finance Green Acres so they wouldn’t have to ask voters to approve a bond. That, he said, let open space groups avoid a public brawl with Governor Christie, who has demanded no new debt be placed on taxpayers. The coalition, he said, “didn’t have the spine to fight for the money.”

The Star Ledger also wrote the story.

NJ.Com reported the story in the wake of passage of the Constitutional amendment:

• Fight Over Open Space Money Brews After Ballot Question Passes

[…]

Bill Wolfe, the head of the New Jersey chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said voters were “actively misinformed” about the “unprecedented, deep cuts” brought about by the ballot initiative, blaming the Keep It Green coalition for overemphasizing the benefits to open space and downplaying the cuts.

“The public was duped on this,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe recommended restoring funding for state parks and the DEP, which could see significant staff cuts from the shortfall, before appropriating money elsewhere. (He outlined those recommendations on his blog here.)

So, this is no secret and Spotlight is grossly negligent for not including it in their story. And they are doing it intentionally.

Here’s the note I just sent reporter Jon Hurdle – he’s shameless too because he knows this happened and won’t report it:

Jon – Former State Parks Director said this about the theft of State parks funding by the Keep It Green Coalition campaign – but by the same groups you quote today -:

State Parks Director Texel’s devastating words:

“As the Director of the NJ State Park Service now coping with the reality that our entire Parks capital budget will be completely eliminated beginning July 1, 2015 as a result of the YES vote I can say this is the darkest day I have faced in my professional career. Worse than Superstorm Sandy.”

Why not ask them about that? Or about the parks money that now goes to “stewardship” and funding of private conservation groups who stole the State parks money? Or the more than $1 million advertising campaign they waged to mislead voters on the Open Space funding ballot question? These people are shameless! Details, see:

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2014/11/stewardship-for-whom-public-parks-or-private-lands/

Wolfe