You see, I live in PA, a state that prides itself on our State Parks. We have 117 of them. Every Pennsylvanian is within a 15 minute drive from a State Park. These are great areas to explore nature, get some peace and quiet, or go boxing.
Until midnight tonight.
That is when all "non-essential" services in PA will be shut down, due to our current budget impass. Governer Ed Rendell has made the decision that at midnight tonight, 2300 DCNR employees will be placed on furlough. The few who do remain in place will be performing "enforcement and safety shifts only." This boils down to keeping the public off our own land.
Today, you cannot visit a state run museum in PA. You cannot take a drivers license test or get your license renewed. The perpetual construction on our highways has ceased. Even the lights illuminating the Capitol Building are off, as there is no money to run them.
Fortuantely, essential services will remain in place. Among these:
- The Police
- Prisons
- Health Care for the Poor
- Gambling
Yup, thats right. The Governer in his glorious foresight, has decided that our five slots casinos must remain open, providing an 11th hour exemption from the closing.
So, lets sum this up: The budget impass is so dire that our roads are not being fixed, people cannot remain legal to drive if they happen to be unlucky enough to need these services now. and we can not visit the woods in a state NAMED "Penn's Woods."
We can, however, still be arrested, go to jail, receive health care if we cannot afford it, and gamble.
What an appalling age we live in.
6 comments:
Gaaaa!!! Dude! I love how they decide what's "essential" and what isn't. You should just do it--go out there and climb the fence or something. I'm sure the cops are all busy doing more essential duties, like harrassing homeless people and dumb kids with pot stickers on their cars and mingling with the public at parades.
Or! You could have a penny drive to get things going again! People love to get rid of those pennies!
You should move to Taxatuchetts where gobs and gobs of tax money is taken from residents to spend on all the wonderful services like surveys to find out why prisoners want to escape from prison.
But I agree... there are some things that are essential. Parks are one of them. Goverment studies on stupid crap... not so much.
Thank goodness they've decided that prisons are essential, or else who knows who could be walking the streets, not to mention gambling!
I think though that you'll be able to cruise on into any park that you want. Do they really have gates? Or just (usually, while not on furlough) people taking your money? Go to as many state parks as you can!!!
Just to answer the last person's comment, the parks do have gates, and they are also all free of charge, so there is no one there to take any money.
This whole furlough thing is rather curious. As of now, well about two hours ago actually, everyone is back to work as some sort of agreement has been met. This is probably going to mean the legislature gave in and we are all going to have to pay higher taxes. But the interesting thing is, many of the services that were put on furlough were actually closed on Monday to begin with, like the state museums and most driver licensing centers. It is all just a political ploy by fast Eddie to try and get what he wants.
and here i just moved to penn....
Im sorry all the bad legislation passing followed me!
but seriously Erie county NY tried this last year,and it came to the decision that either we are taxed more or we can have the park as long as we are responsible for upkeep.
glad to know it all worked out though, i wonder what the agreement is....
kitten without mittens
Well, there is nothing to do with the parks in limbo in the budget, it is other things. The parks were just park of the furlough. If you are really interested in it, take a look at my blog.
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