This Land, Your Land

Bruce Henderson of the Charlotte Observer took a look at North Carolina's state parks this week and found that budget cuts mean "visitors will pay more to camp, swim or picnic" and "find fewer rangers and more peeling paint."

"The park system also will lose millions from the trust fund that has helped it grow by about 5,000 acres a year since 1996," the report says.

But, no parks have closed, despite an early proposal to close some and shorten the week at others.

State legislators cut the parks budget by 25 percent this year and took $8.4 million from the trust fund to help balance the state budget. They also shifted another $6 million from the trust fund to be spent on park operations. The latter move means the overall parks budget is effectively 5.6 percent less than last year's, Henderson said.

The trust fund is supposed to be spent on land acquisition, capital projects, major maintenance expenses and local grants. This is the first time it has been spent on operations.

Meanwhile, parks officials have continued to hold the line against charging entrance fees, which a N.C. State University study shows would not pay off anyway, the newspaper says.