We super-size everything.

Except park budgets.

For years—make that decades—in good years and bad, in flush times and lean, California's State Parks have received the short end of the budgetary stick from Sacramento. The nation’s largest, most spectacular and most environmentally diverse state park system is funded by about one tenth of one percent of the state budget. Chronically under-funded, the State Parks suffer from a billion dollar backlog of deferred maintenance.

And things are about to get worse. Way worse. Not content with merely short-changing state parks, California’s politicos now want to shut most them down.

That’s right. Barricade the entrance roads. Shutter the visitor centers. Lock the restrooms. Close the campgrounds, picnic areas, fishing piers and hiking trails.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to padlock about 80 percent of California’s 279 parks in order to save the state an estimated $70 million—couch change compared to the state’s gargantuan budget and the $24 billion deficit to that budget, but enough to operate 220 parks.

How to make up that $70 million dollar and keep the parks open? Each of the 75 million park visitors per year could contribute an additional dollar per visit. Each Californian could contribute $2 per year.

Better yet, let’s end the annual budget issues surrounding our parks and this ridiculous talk of park closures with a permanent solution, one that works in other states: An annual $10 license plate fee would adequately fund California’s State Parks and give every California resident FREE admission to them.