Just when government in New York has seemingly reached an apex of confusion, two announcements arrived May 4, one announcing a charge for parking and the other offering free parking, at the same attraction.
The state of New York announces it will charge $5 per car load for visitors to park at state lots accessing Walkway Over the Hudson. The same day, the City of Poughkeepsie announced it had finalized agreement for a free parking lot accessing the Walkway Over the Hudson.
The confusion seems symptomatic of New York State government , with the state budget  six weeks late and no signs of progress in reaching a spending accord.
Proposed new fees and funding cuts for parks and historic sites are designed to remedy a $15.3 million shortfall in the parks budget, a tiny segment of the state”™s  budget of $134 billion that is facing of deficit of about $9 billion for 2010-2011.
With no new budget adopted, 41 parks and 14 historic sites are now officially closed or are operating under reduced hours, in accord with plans announced by Gov. David Paterson in February. They include the Fort Montgomery historic site and Anthony Wayne state park in Orange County and Trump State Park in Westchester, among the 20 facilities affected in the Hudson Valley area.
An additional 54 sites were also slated for closure or reduction, including Walkway Over the Hudson, under plans the Governor announced a week later, unless legislators agreed to move $5 million from the Environmental Protection Fund to fund park operations.
Those facilities are now operating under the continuing budget resolutions that are providing temporary funding for state government.
State legislators from both parties originally vowed to prevent cuts to state parks. A plan floated unofficially but widely accepted would use some $11 million from the parks”™ capital reserve funds to pay for operations in the 2010-2011 budget year. However in the absence of a budget agreement, that funding has not materialized.
Hence the parking fee for visitors to the Walkway, a pedestrian bridge 212 feet over the Hudson River linking Poughkeepsie and Highland in Ulster County. The Walkway is officially a state park and was opened in a festive weekend of events Oct. 2. Since then it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors, far outpacing estimates of its drawing power.
“The park (Walkway) is new and it”™s hard to estimate how much revenue it will generate,” said Dan O”™Keefe, spokesman for the state Office of Recreation Parks and Historic Sites. Whatever funds are generated will go in to Park general funds to recoup operating costs.
He said park officials have closed the parks on the governor”™s original list, but kept operating those on the later list, while seeking revenue streams such as parking fees. He said that the $5 fee for Walkway parking is less than the $8 to $10 car load fee collected at other popular parks.
But Poughkeepsie has a different idea: a new municipal parking lot located at 121 Parker Avenue that will offer free parking for 70 cars. “It”™s about a block and a half away from the walkway,” said Poughkeepsie Mayor John C. Tkazyik.
The two parking options being announced on the same day were happenstance, said the mayor. “One had nothing to do with the other.” He said the city had been negotiating with developer Joseph Spezio III, of Spezio Organization L.L.C., with the city paying $10 annually to lease the lot, essentially a donation. The City Council approved the plan May 3.
“I”™m glad to be able to collaborate,” said Spezio. “It is important to give back to the community you are doing business with and create a mutually beneficial relationship.”
