While giving lip service to the Texas parks and wildlife system, behind the scenes
Rick Perry is working actively to sell off 400 acres of undeveloped parkland to the highest bidder.
The 400 acres is a beautiful stretch of land north of Ft. Worth, at Eagle Mountain Lake. It was purchased in 1980 and has remained undeveloped because of lack of funding. In late December after the land office declared it an unused state resource, Perry's office authorized its sale. However, always looking out for Texans' addiction to petroleum, Perry made sure that the state retained the drilling rights. At least one oil well already exists on the property.
Officials have said that the sale of the land can help purchase of other land for park development, but critics say the reasoning is specious. We've had funding for years to develop the land, but lawmakers have diverted funds for other purposes.
Looks like Rick Perry just plain hates the parks system. This proposed auction is yet another creepy little underhanded move to undermine our natural resources.
Recently revealed:
* An additional $46 million in dedicated hunting and fishing fees has been withheld from the cash-strapped Texas parks system by state lawmakers, despite pleas from an agency facing scores of layoffs, deteriorating facilities and the proposed sale of 400 acres of parkland near Fort Worth, top park officials said Monday.
* A recent Star-Telegram investigation found that administrators of the 600,000-acre parks system have curtailed operations, closed some facilities and forced managers to contend with deteriorating buildings and inoperable vehicles -- all because of financial neglect by Texas lawmakers.
* Parks officials estimate that the fund in which license plate revenue is deposited will have $4.3 million at the end of August. But lawmakers voted to give the parks department only $106,000 a year out of that account when they passed the state budget in 2005. This is outrageous, as Texans were promised that their money was to go to fund Texas parks.
* The state's beleaguered park system needs an additional $85 million annually, money that should come from rerouting all revenue from a sales tax on sporting goods, according to a special committee report released Thursday on the financial crisis at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.