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Last Updated: 10/14/2008
PROPOSED GUN RULE WILL HURT MANAGEMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS
SURVEY: 77 PERCENT OF NPS, FISH & WILDLIFE EXPERTS SAY PROPOSED GUN RULE WILL HURT MANAGEMENT OF NATIONAL PARKS, WILDLIFE REFUGES
Jump in Illegal "Impulse Killing" of Wildlife Expected by Majority of National Park, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Employees and Retirees; Interior Department Found to Have Violated 2 Procedural Requirements in Rushing Through "Political" Rule.
TUSCON, AZ - October 14, 2008 - More than three out of four (77 percent) of 1,400 present and former employees of the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) predict that the controversial Department of Interior (DOI) proposed rule reversing the long-standing prohibition of carrying loaded, concealed weapons in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges will have an adverse affect on the ability of NPS and USFWS employees to accomplish their mission.

This finding and others are contained in "Natural and Cultural Resource Impacts and Management Consequences of the Proposed Regulation to Authorize the Possession of Concealed Firearms in Units of the National Park & National Wildlife Refuge Systems," a major new report the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), which now has more than 670 members.

While DOI has neglected to provide an analysis of the potential impacts of its proposed rule, CNPSR surveyed in excess of 1,400 present and former employees of the National Park Service and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess the impacts that these experts foresee should the regulation go into effect. Other key results of the survey include:

* 75 percent feel that there will be an increase in opportunistic or impulse wildlife killings in parks and refuges; and

* 83 percent of survey respondents anticipated that the proposal will increase the overall level of complexity for management of their park or refuge.

In issuing the report, CNPSR emphasized that DOI violated the procedural requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in failing to adequately examine the foreseeable impacts of the relaxed gun regulation. Additionally, CNPSR asserts that DOI should have consulted the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service pursuant to ESA, as 89 threatened or endangered species inhabit the parks that would be affected by the regulation.

The new CNPSR report highlights the enforcement complexities and threats to public safety that should have been addressed in an analysis of reasonable alternatives to the rule under NEPA.

Based on the report, CNPSR is renewing its call for DOI to withdraw the proposed rule.

CNPSR Executive Council Chair Bill Wade said: "We think the proposed rule is manufactured and driven politically to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Data show that parks are among the safest places to be in this country. Moreover, we believe it will create more problems than it can possibly fix. It is likely to alter, over time, the friendly atmosphere visitors look forward to in parks, where they go to get away from the day to day pressures and influences of their everyday lives, including worry about guns."

For the online version of the new CNPSR report, go to http://www.npsretirees.org/cnpsr/2008/cnpsr-submits-report-potential-impacts-proposed-rule-allow-guns-national-parks on the Web.

ABOUT CNPSR

The 675 members of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees are all former employees of the National Park Service with a combined 20,000 years of stewardship of America' most precious natural and cultural resources. In their personal lives, CNPSR members reflect the broad spectrum of political affiliations. CNPSR members now strive to apply their credibility and integrity as they speak out for national park solutions that uphold law and apply sound science. The Coalition counts among its members: former national park directors and deputy directors, regional directors, superintendents, rangers and other career professionals who devoted an average of nearly 30 years each to protecting and interpreting America's national parks on behalf of the public. For more information, visit the CNPSR Web site at http://www.npsretirees.org.
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Napolitano should clean up her mess before she goes

By Tom Jenney

When I was little and I my room was a mess, my mom would make me clean up before I could go outside and play with the other kids. 

Right now, there is a lot of talk about Governor Janet Napolitano leaving Arizona to go play with the big kids in Washington, DC. She is on the short list to be Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate, and many think she could become the next US Attorney General.

But before she leaves, Gov. Napolitano should clean up the mess that she-more than anyone else-has made of Arizona's state budget. 

Since taking office in 2003, Napolitano has prodded the Arizona Legislature to grow state budgets at an average rate of 12 percent annually, much faster than the rate of growth of the state's private economy, which grows at 7 or 8 percent annually during economic boom times. State government spending now takes up 7.01 percent of the state's economy-the biggest portion since 1980.

With spending growing so fast, and reaching unsustainable levels, it was inevitable that tax revenues would fall short and that a gigantic deficit would emerge. That gap is now up to $2.2 billion-proportionally, the biggest state deficit in the country. 

Napolitano was the prime mover in creating the deficit, so she should have taken the lead in trying to fix it. But she failed to call the Legislature into special session last fall to correct this year's budget, and she failed to use her executive power to reduce agency spending.

For next year's deficit, Napolitano has proposed fund shifts and accounting gimmicks, but very little in the way of net spending reductions. The combined impact of her measures would be to temporarily reduce the deficit by roughly $1.2 billion-a billion dollars short of actually balancing the budget.

Napolitano has suggested increasing state property taxes by $250 million, but tax increases are politically unpopular (and bad for a struggling economy). So it appears that her real plan-if she has one-is to balance the budget by increasing state debt. At this point, it is likely that the liberal majority in the Arizona Legislature will support her in resorting to debt.

Of course, taking on debt will not be the end of the story. If Napolitano moves to DC in 2009, she will be gone when the state begins paying $200 million annually in interest on that debt. Between the interest payments and voter-approved automatic spending increases, the budget deficit for the following year (FY 2010) will probably still be over a billion dollars.

To avoid ongoing deficits in 2010, 2011, and 2012, Arizona would have to see spectacular economic growth, with annual growth in tax revenues of about 15 percent.  If that kind of growth does not materialize-and it probably won't-Napolitano's replacement will be forced to choose between deep spending cuts and huge tax increases.

Instead of leaving a gigantic fiscal mess for someone else to clean up, Napolitano should work with legislative leaders to make significant spending reductions now.

The Legislature's appropriations chairmen, Sen. Bob Burns and Rep. Russell Pearce, have found $1.5 billion in spending reductions that would allow the state to balance next year's budget without taking on debt or raising taxes. Napolitano should be able to support those reductions, which would shave the overall state budget down to the size it was two years ago, in FY 2007.

And if she is still in Arizona this fall, Napolitano should be ready to call the Legislature into special session to make further spending reductions, if revenues fail to meet current expectations.

For better or worse, Napolitano does not have a political "mom" who will make her stay in Arizona until she cleans up her mess. But she is a big girl now, so maybe she can learn how to clean up after herself.

--Tom Jenney is the Arizona director of Americans for Prosperity (www.aztaxpayers.org).
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Last Updated: 05/06/2008
Howard Shanker, Candidate in Arizona CD1 Fundraiser May 23

You are Cordially Invited to a Small, Informative, Fund-raiser

Honoring the Outstanding Environmental and Community Rights Advocate
Howard Shanker, Candidate in Arizona CD1

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
6:00 - 8:00p.m.

at
Bellovin & Karnas, P.C.
131 East Broadway Boulevard
Tucson, Arizona

Hosted by
Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
David Karnas
Barry Bellovin

Please RSVP by Monday, May 19th
To Irene Martinez of Bellovin & Karnas, P.C.
(520) 571-9700 or imartinez@bellovinkarnas.com
 
Howard was recently endorsed by Congressman Raul Grijalva (AZ-7), who called Howard "A champion of the people." Howard has also been endorsed by the Yavapai-Apache Nation and all three agencies of the Navajo Nation that are in the First Congressional District.

Barry Bellovin and David Karnas founded the Bellovin & Karnas, P.C., law firm in 1985. The mission of their firm is to provide representation to individuals who have been wronged by powerful special interests. Mr. Bellovin and Mr. Karnas each do community activism work, in the form of pro bono legal representation and work with non-profit organizations.
 

Vote Howard Shanker 2008
www.Shanker2008.com

 
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