02/16/95 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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re parks aid O m in N ACTION ALERT St. Paul and Ramsey County Now Operation and Maintenance Funding Bad news on Operation and Maintenance funding!! In the February, 1995 issue of Park Notes we reported that Governor Carlson's budget would include $7 million for operating and maintaining (0 & M) the regional park system, 10% of the cost of operating the system. When Governor Carlson presented his budget it included $4,476,000 or less than 6% of the cost. We need your help. Ask your legislator to restore the 10% funding. The State of Minnesota funds the state park system so that operating and maintaining state parks is not incumbent upon the financial resources of the municipalities or counties where the state parks are located. The regional park system is treated differently. The City of St. Paul and Ramsey County are responsible for operating and maintaining the regional parks under their jurisdiction. This means that the residents of the City of St. Paul must pay to operate and maintain Como Park and Harriet Island Park, and Ramsey County residents must pay to operate and maintain Long Lake Regional Park and Keller Regional Park even though many people who use the parks come from around the state. There are eight regional parks in St. Paul and Ramsey County. • If the Governor's budget recommendation for 0 & M funding of the regional parks is adopted by the legislature, rather than $7 million or 10% for the biennium, it will result in an annual reduction of over $257,000 for the City of St. Paul and over $88,000 for Ramsey County. Please call or write your legislators. If you do not know the name and phone number, call 296-0504. All addresses are State Capital, St. Paul, MN 55155. Ask them to support biennial funding of $7 million for operating and maintaining the regional park system. Sample letter: Please personalize - Please personalize - Please personalize Dear Senator: or Representative: As a park user, I ask that you support $7 million for the biennium for the operation and maintenance of the regional park system. This level of funding represents only about 10% of the total operations and maintenance costs. Minnesota law authorizes the state to pay up to 40% of the operations and maintenance costs. The majority of operations and maintenance costs for the regional park system is paid for with property tax. The City of St. Paul and Ramsey County stand to lose a substantial amount of amount of dollars of park funding if the amount of money appropriated falls below the 10% or $7 million requested by the Metro Council. I ask for your support for this very important appropriation. • Thank you.