Corzine Eases Plan to Cut Agriculture and Parks

The New York Times, April 17, 2008

Selected portions of the article are below. To read the entire article click on the link above.

Faced with irate municipal officials, besieged state legislators and tractors ringing the State House, Gov. Jon S. Corzine says he is willing to relent on his budget proposals.As a result, state parks and the Agriculture Department would stay open.While nothing is official until a budget is completed by July 1, the Assembly’s speaker, Joseph J. Roberts Jr., said on Wednesday that legislative leaders and Mr. Corzine had reached a general consensus to ease some proposed cuts in the $33 billion budget.Mr. Roberts said the state parks would probably stay open, though it was uncertain where Mr. Corzine would save the $4.5 million he said would be saved by closing some of them.Corporate sponsorship or private management have been mentioned as possible sources of funds. The State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, has suggested increasing park fees. Mr. Roberts said the goal was to adopt a budget by June 15 — two weeks short of the state-mandated deadline — to avoid a repeat of the budget dispute in 2006 that closed the government for a week.