Creates and implements the rebuild and renew New York state parks bond act of 2009

Section 2 creates Article 18 of the Parks, Recreation arid Historic Preservation Law implementing the Rebuild and Renew New York State Parks Bond Act of 2010.

Section 3 of the bill creates a new §97-pppp of the State Finance Law establishing the Rebuild and Renew New York State Parks Bond Fund in the joint custody of the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance and the State Comptroller to receive the proceeds of the sale of bonds and/or notes pursuant to the bond act.

Sections 4, 5 and 6 are technical provisions.

Section 7 is the effective date.

Justification

New York's state park system is the nation's oldest, dating to the creation of the Niagara Reservation in 1885. Today it is operated by the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (OPRHP), which is responsible for some 211 sites and facilities, including 35 historic sites. Twenty-seven of the parks have been acquired since 1995, although a number of those are not yet open to the public, generally because no facilities have been developed. The parks system hosts nearly 55 million visitors a year. It covers 325,000 acres and includes more than 5,000 buildings, 28 golf courses, 53 swimming pools, 76 beaches, 27 marinas, 40 boat-launch sites, 18 nature centers, 817 cabins and 8,355 campsites - plus 1,350 miles of trails, hundreds of miles of roads, 106 dams and 604 bridges. Many of these features have historical and cultural significance. The system also harbors some of the state's most important natural treasures, including more than 900 occurrences of 359 different rare species and natural community types and 504 separate populations of plants and animals that are listed as state endangered or threatened. They support the only known occurrences on public lands of 104 rare species and natural community types, and they include 191 occurrences of globally rare species and natural community types. More than 70 of our state parks have significant geological features including the Niagara Gorge, Shawangunk Ridge, the canyon at Letchworth, the waterfall at Taughannock. There are nearly 200 lakes and ponds, and several large contiguous forest tracts. The Office of Parks' official mission statement recognizes its responsibility both to the visitors and to the underlying resources - "to provide safe and enjoyable recreational and interpretive opportunities for all New York State residents and visitors, and to be responsible stewards of our valuable natural, historic and cultural resources." Our park system is a profoundly valuable legacy for this state - created for us by civic leaders, philanthropists, public servants and taxpayers from generations past. Like any legacy, it carries to succeeding generations and the responsibility of sound stewardship. It is time for us to make the essential investments to restore and enhance our state park system. State support for the system has become virtually flat over time, resulting in a shortfall of more than $140 million needed for infrastructure projects, according to at least one prominent conservation and recreation organization. Our parks are generally well-maintained, and there have been significant capital improvements in recent years - many made possible by the fact that out parks agency and its leadership have proven extraordinarily adept at finding non-taxpayer sources of funding.

But the state's failure to fully fund infrastructure spending has led to visible, emerging problems that could easily get out of hand, if repairs and upgrades are continually deferred. And some of the new parks that have been announced or acquired in recent years have not actually been opened. Parks & Trails New York* is a statewide, non-profit advocate for parks, trails and recreation projects. To help inform public understanding about the needs of our state parks, they undertook a comprehensive, year-long study of the system. They selected a geographically representative group of parks, from Hither Hills in eastern Suffolk County to Long Point State Park on Chautauqua Lake. They gave priority to the most heavily visited parks in each region, and ended up reporting on 36 parks that together account for 64 percent of the park system's total visitors, and 59 percent of its total acreage. In addition, they analyzed budget data, including reports on infrastructure needs that have, and have not, been funded. The report, issued at the end of 2006, is highly complimentary of the Office of Parks and staff of dedicated parks employees. Nonetheless, it reached the following findings:

* Damaged and/or inadequate bathrooms at some heavily used parks. * Some major visitor facilities that have been shut down because of health or other problems. * Numerous buildings that were clearly overdue for a painting, or a new roof -- needed repairs that will become more costly the longer they are put off. * Deteriorating pavement in parking lots at numerous parks - the kind of problem that gets more expensive to fix, every year that work is postponed. * Some poorly kept playing fields, and deteriorating basketball and tennis courts in some parks. * Significant shortcomings in visitor information and interpretive materials and programs, at many of the parks we visited. * Problems with wheelchair access to some facilities that could be made more accessible. * Inconsistent and confusing arrangements for trash disposal in some parks, resulting in a few unsightly messes. * And a general feeling that assets at numerous parks - ranging from the paddle tennis courts at Jones Beach, to the picnic facilities at Verona Beach - have an outdated, almost tired look about them. The reports highly critical of the state's neglect describing emerging problems that are an outgrowth of fiscal strains on the park system that have developed over 15 years, or longer. Staffing levels have remained flat and capital funds - the monies that upgrade and repair basic visitor facilities like roads and trails, bathrooms and nature centers, swimming pools and playing fields - have grown even more slowly than the operational budget. In response to this crunch, OPRHP has worked creatively to increase the revenues generated by fees, sponsorships, concessions and other sources. But the agency's very success at revenue-raising has made it all too tempting for state budget-makers to hold back on taxpayer-funded support for the parks. Meanwhile a new funding mechanism created in the expectation that it would provide a dedicated stream of revenues for parks infrastructure projects has, in practice, allowed the diversion of tens of millions of dollars from infrastructure to operations. The result of all this is a backlog of infrastructure projects that adds up to at least $140 million; an agency that is too strained to actually develop all of the new parks that the state is proud to have acquired; and an emerging threat that the condition of our parks could seriously deteriorate, if the situation is not addressed. Our parks are, truly, at a turning point - one New York State must address in the years immediately ahead.

Good parks are vital to the quality of life of individual citizens and families, and they deliver broad economic and other benefits to the state as a whole. New York must accept the challenge of investing wisely in its park system. We cannot afford to squander the priceless legacy that our state park system represents. With our growing understanding of the importance of environmental protection and of healthy lifestyles - and with the state leveraging quality of life as one of its key assets in the effort to grow our economy - the park system matters today more than ever before. * Much of this justification is paraphrased or taken in whole or in part from Parks at a Turning Point, Restoring and Enhancing New York's State Park System, Parks (Parks & Trails NEW YORK, November, 2006 (www. ptny.org).

Prior legislative history

2008: S.7953 TOURISM, RECREATION AND SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

Fiscal implications

Creation of a state debt in an amount not to exceed in the aggregate up to $500,000,000.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately, provided that the provisions of section one of this act shall not take effect unless and until this act shall have been submitted to the people at the general election to be held in November 2010 and shall have been approved by a majority of all votes cast for and against it at such election. Upon approval by the people, section one of this act shall take effect immediately. The ballots to be furnished for the use of voters upon submission of this act shall be in the form prescribed by the election law and the proposition or question to be submitted shall be printed thereon in substantially the following form, namely "To promote and assure the preservation, renewal and improvement of the state's parks for the benefit of the people of the state, shall section one of chapter (here insert the chapter number) of the law of two thousand eight, enacting and constituting the "REBUILD AND RENEW NEW YORK STATE PARKS BOND ACT. OF 2010" (name of act to be in bold upper case legend so as to be prominently set out on the ballot) authorizing the creation of a state debt in the amount of five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) for the purpose of improving, enhancing, preserving and restoring "the quality of the state's parks infrastructure by the planning and design, construction, reconstruction, replacement, improvement, reconditioning, rehabilitation and preservation of the lands and facilities of the Department of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, be approved?".