Cent per plastic bag proposed for state parks

Would you pay a penny for a disposable plastic bag from the grocery store to keep state parks open?

The Alliance for New York State Parks is betting in a statewide lobbying campaign you would.

“We know that the public supports parks,” said Eileen Larrabee, spokeswoman for the alliance, which is a division of the nonprofit Open Space Institute.

The alliance commissioned a poll in December that showed 73 percent of New Yorkers would support paying a penny per plastic shopping bag if the money were dedicated for state parks, which last year suffered closures or service cutbacks. The proposal could generate up to $60 million a year, the alliance said, which amounts to every person in the state using 300 bags a year.

It also would reduce the number of bags in landfills and littering the environment. People who use reusable bags won’t have to pay.

The group is pushing the proposal to lawmakers and the public in a statewide campaign begun Tuesday, the same day officials testified before the state Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on proposed park budget cuts for the next fiscal year.

A year after budget cuts threatened to close some parks and cut services in others, more reductions are likely on the way. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2011-12 budget calls for cutting state park and historic site funding by more than $17 million, from last year’s approximately $200 million.

Even in parks that remain open, some pools, lakes, golf courses and other amenities have closed.

“The crisis facing New York’s state parks goes far beyond this year’s budget proposal,” said alliance director Erik Kulleseid. “From failing swimming pools and bathrooms and crumbling masonry to outdated water and electrical systems, our parks have been diminishing before our eyes over the past decades.”

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation doesn’t expect to close any parks this year even with the budget cuts.

Acting commissioner Andy Beers testified Tuesday before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, stating, “I am confident that the 10 percent reduction can be achieved without requiring new closures of state parks or historic sites by re-evaluating our operations to identify additional efficiencies, eliminating redundancies, and examining how savings from actions taken in the current fiscal year will help us in the next fiscal year.”

Larrabee said legislation would have to be enacted to accomplish the “Pennies for Parks” goal. It would set up how the stores collect and pay the money to the state. “All of those details would be obviously presented in a piece of legislation to do that,” she said.

While parks cut back on services last year to stay within the agency’s budget, more people used them.

“It’s ironic that even as more and more New Yorkers are visiting parks and we have come to better understand the sense of community pride and economic activity associated with parks, state support to operate and maintain them continues to decline,” Kulleseid said. “As Governor Cuomo has inspired New Yorkers to ‘build a New York for future generations,’ our state parks must be restored to a place of greatness.”

Larrabee said parks need both operating revenue to stay open and capital funds to do more long-term maintenance. “Our parks need to be well-maintained in order for people to keep going to them.”

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation estimated last year that more than $1 billion is needed to repair and update the parks and historic sites in the system, under then-commissioner Carol Ash, who now works for the Alliance for New York State Parks.

The survey conducted by Buffalo pollster Barry Zeplowitz and Associates asked 1,000 New York State registered voters about paying for grocery bags.

“If the amount charged was one penny per bag, and you knew it would raise $60 million annually to keep state parks open and well maintained for your use, would you support such a charge?” the question read.

Seventy-three percent favored the proposal and 24 percent were against it. The rest had no opinion.

The parks system includes 178 parks and 35 historic sites.

Disposable plastic shopping bags have been banned in some countries because they are known to harm marine wildlife, including turtles, and clog storm drains and gutters. Oregon is considering becoming the first state in the U.S. to ban the bags, pushing shoppers to bring their own reusable bags or pay 5 cents for recycled paper bags.

San Francisco outlawed the bags in 2007 in large grocery and drug stores, and other cities have followed suit.

The California-based Earth Resource Foundation estimates the average person uses 130 plastic bags per year, far less than the 300 bags a year the Alliance for New York State Parks uses for its revenue estimate.