Barrios and Resor Move to End Misuse of State Parks Money by Governor's Office

News Release

For Immediate Release
March 25, 2005
Please Contact: Colin Durrant (617)722-1650 or Dalié Jiménez, 617-722-1650

Barrios and Resor Move to End Misuse of State Parks Money by Governor's Office
Call for Independent Review of Gov’s DCR Budget Raid

(Boston, MA) -- Senator Jarrett T. Barrios and Senator Pamela Resor today moved to end the misuse of state parks money by the Governor Office’s for political and personal press events. The Boston Herald today reported that the Governor’s Office used DCR employees at 67 non-park related events and press conferences. Earlier in the year, it was reported that $45,000 of parks money was used for the Governor’s Patriots Rally. At a time when state budgets are increasingly being strained, Barrios and Resor also called for an immediate independent review of the Governor’s inappropriate use of other department’s budgets for his press conferences and events.

“The taxpayers of Massachusetts have the right to expect that the state’s parks money be spent to serve the state’s parks, not the Govenor’s press events,” said Senator Barrios. “Today we’re moving to end Romney’s DCR slush fund. The Govenor’s Office has a budget of over $1.5 million and he should be using that money for his press events. Parks money should be used for parks, period.”

Barrios and Resor, who Chair the Joint Committee on Public Safety & Homeland Security and Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture respectively, said they have requested that a provision be included in the Senate budget that expressly prohibits DCR funding from being used for events that are “not open to the public or that is not held in a park, parkway or other place under the control of the DCR.” Last month Barrios and Resor chaired an oversight hearing that unveiled serious funding lapses and equipment shortages had places a stranglehold on DCR’s ability to perform its duty to maintain the state’s parks and parkways.

“The state parks system has suffered from underfunding for years,” said Senator Resor. “The results of understaffing and maintenance cuts are only too evident. For the Governor to continue siphoning funds from this agency for his own personal agenda is simply unconscionable”

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last updated 10-Jul-2006 10:31 AM

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