Budweiser, King Of Parks

Via David Dayen at Calitics, it turns out California's state parks are turning to corporate sponsorships to try to keep them open.

State parks officials and nonprofit organizations scrambled Wednesday to find funding and possibly new corporate sponsors to keep as many as 100 parks and beaches open after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed an additional $6.2 million out of the state parks system.

Budget cuts also suspended a land conservation program that has been hailed as a key to preventing sprawl and easing economic pressure on farmers and ranchers.

State officials won't finalize a list of park closures until Labor Day and said they hope to see the parks reopened in one to two years.

"We are actively seeking anyone who can help us with these places, all of them jewels, at a time when people need them most," said state parks Director Ruth Coleman.

Hey, why not? I'm sure there's plenty of corporate citizens who wouldn't mind a lucrative deal to slap logos on every tree they can find in some of these parks, right?

"We're reaching out to all possible partners -- cities, counties, nonprofits, banks, corporations, newspapers, individuals -- who would be interested in helping us," said Roy Stearns, spokesman for the state parks department. "Maybe we can find agreements that don't alter, commercialize or degrade our state park system.

"For example, if Budweiser came forward with money for Malibu Beach State Park, we wouldn't change the name to Budweiser Beach," he said. "But why not put up a banner saying, 'This park is kept open by Budweiser' for as long as they continue helping us?

"Will it work?" he added. "We really don't know. We're not sure what awaits us at the end of this road."

I do. It's classic disaster capitalism. Underfund something to the point the corporate world has to step in, declare big government is a failure, have the good corporate citizen "help out financially" and then wonder why government is full of conflicts of interest, graft, corruption, and pay-for-play sleaze. You can bet the corporate sponsors won't "alter, commercialize or degrade" the state park system at first, it would be bad press after all. They'll wait until the jobs, the revenue, and the system become dependent on the corporate partnership, then start making helpful suggestions.

Is it better to close the parks instead? No...but ask yourself whose fault it is that the parks are closing in the first place.