Submitted by Sammy Smith ([email protected])
The National Park Service has announced that almost $2.5 million of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies will be spent on parks in Georgia. That’s about 1/3 of a percent—that is, 0.33%—of the full $750 million budget that will be spent in our state.* The national budget will be spent on nearly 800 projects. In Georgia, money will go to (in decreasing order of money to be spent):
Note that every one of these parks, like many US National Parks, includes an archaeological and historic preservation component, like historic standing buildings, historic landscapes, and prehistoric and historic archaeological sites. Certainly, federal stimulus monies that support stewardship of our national heritage is very important, and deciding which projects to fund can not have been easy.
One-fiftieth of the national budget of $750 million would be $15 million. If funding were proportional by state, then $15 million would be what Georgia would get. Since we’re only getting just under $2.5 million, it would seem that Georgia is disproportionately underfunded in the NPS budget, getting only about 16.6% of an equal (1/50th) portion of the total budget.
How do you feel about this? Comments are open!
Across the country, NPS projects are intended to preserve and protect national icons and historic landscapes, to make “green improvements” (especially to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy use), to remediate abandoned mine lands, and to provide $15 million in grants to protect and restore buildings at historically black colleges and universities. In addition, funding through the Federal Highway Administration will improve park roads. For comparison, here are some non-Georgia projects the NPS budget is funding:
Note that every one of these projects will receive more money than the parks across the whole state of Georgia will receive. Reminder: comments are open!
For a listing of the Georgia projects, click here. For a list of all NPS projects, by state, including Georgia, click here. These are current as of late April 2009. Also, here’s the link to the NPS Recovery Investments webpage.
NPS is slated to get $700 million of the Department of the Interior’s full stimulus budget of more than $3 billion.
Posted online on Monday, April 27th, 2009