Committee trims Parks & Recreation requests, converts nine temps to full‑time and combines several grant lines

Representative Sanford led the committee through a Parks and Recreation budget worksheet on Feb. 4 that would convert nine temporary staff positions to full‑time, decline two additional requested new positions, reduce a SIF road maintenance appropriation and consolidate several grant lines into a single program.

Sanford said the worksheet proposes converting nine temporary full‑time positions into regular employees with retirement benefits and recommended not approving two additional personnel requests. He described two technology items — expanded park Wi‑Fi and a pilot project to automate services — as candidates for removal from the package to preserve funding for other priorities.

On a major capital line, committee members discussed reducing a roads and deferred maintenance appropriation that had been listed at $15,000,000 to $12,050,000, with the chair clarifying that the $12.05 million would be drawn from SIF. Sanford said the proposal preserves a significant maintenance pool for the agency while reallocating funds from lower‑priority technology items.

Sanford also proposed consolidating several outdoor education, state matching and grant lines. The package discussed keeping state matching grants at $2.5 million, reducing city/county/tribal matching by $2.5 million, and joining an outdoor arts venue program with other grants to create a combined line totaling $7,500,000.

Sanford told the committee he wanted the Peace Garden funding left intact; members said that site has received consistent support and they preferred to fund it this session.

Committee staff were asked to draft a formal statement of purpose from the worksheet. Levi said she would work on the statement of purpose the same day and hoped to have it ready “sometime tomorrow — optimistically in the morning, realistically in the afternoon.” The committee also asked that a set of requested exemptions for carryover authority of previous biennium appropriations be added to the sections; members instructed staff to include those.

No formal committee vote on the Parks and Recreation worksheet was recorded in the transcript. Committee members thanked Parks and Recreation staff for attending and said agencies would have another opportunity to seek funding in the second half of the biennium.

Ending: Committee directed Levi to prepare a statement of purpose based on the worksheet and asked staff to add carryover exemptions requested by the agency; timing for a formal vote on Parks and Recreation was not set in the transcript.