Wallyworld closed for the summer

It's a familiar pattern.

The Legislature tells local school boards they have to trim costs -- which usually means growing the budget 4 percent this year instead of 8.

Do the superintendent and his school board lay off some bureaucrats in charge of "curriculum development" and filling out federal forms? Do they cut back fancy employee health and retirement benefits, trimming costs in ways least likely to directly impact the average student and parent?

Of course not! In a dance now as ritualized as Japanese Kabuki, they announce they're going to cancel popular basketball or football programs, along with art and music classes. Parents threaten to storm the schools with torches and pitchforks, shouting "Something must be done!" Scattering like rabbits, lawmakers restore the funding.

Back during the Clinton administration, a budget impasse led the White House to "close down the federal government" for a week or so. Were private-sector employers advised to stop withholding taxes out of Americans' paychecks while the IRS was closed, since, after all, there'd be no need for taxes to fund a "closed-down" government? Ha, ha.

Instead, federally managed parks, beaches and monuments were "closed" -- though by some miracle, uniformed federal marshals still patrolled to ticket anyone who attempted to go boating or swimming while said facilities were "closed."

No federal employee lost a day's pay. It was all play-acting to convince Americans they'd suffer without their wise and beneficent federal gubbamint. (In fact, all those lakes, oceans, mountains and beaches were there before we had a federal government, weren't they? If the federal government really "closed" and went away, wouldn't things merely revert to "hike and swim at your own risk," the way it was back in 1900?)

Fast forward to Sacramento, today.

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing up to 220 state parks to help cut the state's $24.3 billion deficit," The Associated Press reported last week, "including popular attractions for millions of visitors each year."

Among the parks closed would be Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, Bodie State Historic Park -- one of the best-preserved Old West ghost towns in the western U.S. -- and Big Basin Redwoods, the oldest state park.

California's parks department said a $70 million cut would leave it only enough money to run 59 of the state's 279 parks.

William Randolph Hearst's Castle on the Central Coast and a dozen other so-called money makers would remain open under the proposal, as would many Southern California beaches that attract millions of visitors year round.

California spends roughly $400 million a year running its 279 state parks and beaches. User fees bring in slightly more than a quarter of that revenue.

Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, said the state cannot afford to subsidize state parks at a time when lawmakers are being asked to make severe cuts to health care, senior services, education and prisons.

At least 2,000 park rangers, biologists, lifeguards, interpreters, architects and maintenance workers would be laid off if the proposal is adopted, said state parks department spokesman Roy Sterns.

So, is Mr. Schwarzenegger serious, or is this just another ploy to get the public up in arms to oppose any real spending cuts?

Starting with the highly visible parks -- at the start of summer, when family thoughts turn to campgrounds, mountain hikes and swimming holes -- smells suspiciously of that old Kabuki script.

But in fact, Mr. Villines is correct: California, which has spent itself into bankruptcy, has no choice.

Nor does it make much sense to simply lock the gates and let the brambles grow. Bids should be solicited from private entrepreneurs willing to operate some of these facilities at a profit.

Because private outfits tend to operate with far lower overhead than government bureaucracies, they might not have to quadruple entrance fees.

And this is only the beginning. If our neighbor to the west aims to turn itself back into the land of opportunity, taxes must be slashed, not raised. State college tuitions and state hospital fees must also be raised to cover actual costs, at which point many of those campuses, too, might be sold or leased to private educators and doctors -- something that could never happen so long as such private entrepreneurs had to face competition from massively tax-subsidized, "below cost," state-run competitors.

This need not be a tragedy. It can be a re-birth. Those who want stuff must simply be told to go back to work, earning enough to pay for it. And then -- crucially -- they must be allowed to keep enough of their earnings to pay for it.