State parks issue receives national attention

The Rick Scott administration’s proposal to privatize portions of state parks is running up against increasing opposition. Now the issue is gaining national attention.

On a recent segment on his progressive talk show, The Big Picture, Thom Hartmann discussed a plan to turn portions of some of Florida’s most renowned state parks over to private corporations — for use as high-impact camping and RV sites.

From the segment:

Gov. Scott is telling his state’s Department of Environmental Protection to draw up plans to sell off huge chunks of 56 Florida state parks to private corporations. And, as you can imagine, corporations don’t really give a damn about the metaphysical experience you might enjoy while camping. They care about the bottom line. And what can be built on campsites to make the most profit. As in — let’s give Smokey the Bear a break from patrolling wildfires at campsites and put him… behind a McDonald’s counter to make sure the deep fryer doesn’t catch fire.

This is how Gov. Scott plans to deal with his state’s budget shortfall. A budget shortfall that was partly created by massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and corporations that Rick Scott himself pushed through as his first priority when he took office at the beginning of the year — plunging his state’s budget into the red.

Watch the full segment below: