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State Park Closures Update: 'We Are Not Finished'
The deal to solve our state budget deficit has basically come to a conclusion, but it's not final yet and we still don't know what parks will close with at least $8 still million proposed to be cut. The California Parks Foundation, in an e-mail this afternoon, explains the latest: "The details are not yet in print, but several sources are confirming that $70 million of the park system's General Fund allocation will be eliminated, with $62 million backfilled by other funding sources on what appears to be a one-time basis. This leaves the state park system with an $8 million gap, and is expected to result in park closures. At this time, there is not a list of certain closures, we do not know how many or which parks may be closed as a result of the budget deal. Considering where we started just 8 weeks ago, this outcome is better for state parks than most people could have imagined. We are not finished - the Legislature still needs to approve the budget deal by the end of the week and more details need to come out regarding the parks that will close - but the fact that we're looking at a much more scaled-down version of park cuts than we started with is welcome news."
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