Frankly, I am beginning to believe that everyone in the legislature is deaf and dumb. Sorry, but that is the way it looks from here. It is time for Californians to stop being their usual polite selves and take drastic steps to curb runaway spending in Sacramento. It should have been done years ago. The budget crisis did not happen in two years.

We have a governor who, with his wife, made a beautiful ad inviting everyone to visit California. Now, he and you, our legislative body, want to close the very facilities people are being invited to visit.

My husband and I have been docents for over 11 years and have seen visitors from all over the world at Clear Lake State Park. Do you realize how much time is given to state parks by volunteers? The state pays for only a portion of man-hours to keep our parks open. Now you want to shirk your legislative duty to the people in California who own the parks by eliminating great numbers of them.

I am totally disgusted with the lack of knowledge by the legislature on how to handle a state budget. If you are overwhelmed with the job, then resign and let us elect someone who can do the job. It is obvious you do not know how.

Stop reckless waste. Items you might look into: law books for prisoners; redecorating and refurnishing offices needlessly; out-of-Sacramento conferences, committee meetings and workshops. Who picks up the tab? This is waste big time. Hasn't anyone heard of a conference call or email conferences?

Although we have some dedicated state employees, are all state employees really working? Private companies cannot put up with what can be seen in some government situations.

If you close the parks, you might as well build a fence around California to the east and the north. A fence should have been built to the south years ago.

In this stressful time, brought on by government mismanagement from California to Washington, where can a person go to commune with nature? I am beginning to think that not a one of you sitting in Sacramento have ever experienced a state park.

When you close parks, you open any structures within the park to decay and infestation by rodents and insects. As you close parks and remove the watchful eyes of our park rangers, you open them to vandalism, poaching and to increased fire danger.

You apparently do not realize that many state parks, such as Anderson Marsh State Historic Park, has 13,000 feet of frontage on Clear Lake that cannot possibly be closed.

I agree with the following statement by the California State Parks Foundation:

“Impacts to the state will go far beyond simply a $143 million 'savings' to the state's General Fund. Local economies in many areas of the state, particularly rural, rely on state park visitors to generate local economic activity that keeps small businesses alive. A recent report by CSU Sacramento found that park users, on average, spent $57.63 per visit. Across the system, this amounts to a more than $4.2 billion in positive economic impacts, impacts that will be lost if the parks are closed. This is exactly the wrong time to be proposing to eliminate the state's core commitment to state parks.

“California's state parks were set aside precisely to safeguard resources and opportunities that would not otherwise be available without the strong support of the public sector. These 279 state parks are part of the public good, which requires a stable and consistent investment by every generation, to ensure their availability for the next generation. Our state parks system is a legacy with which we have all been entrusted.”

I think it is time the people of California no longer “strongly urge you to seek creative solutions that provide adequate revenue to keep our state parks open and accessible to all Californians,” but demand that you become a responsible body and do the work you took an oath to do.

Leona Butts lives in Clearlake Oaks.