Return funds to Harkness

Connecticut lawmakers have had to make difficult, sometimes painful decisions about what the state can afford, what it must axe and how to pay for what survives.

Anger grows as the government cuts or reduces program funding, increases fees and imposes new taxes to cover Connecticut's growing deficit. The cost of government is more than the state can afford, and something has to give. We get it.

Still, we disagree with the imprudent decision to redirect funds for maintaining and improving the mansion and gardens at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford to the state's General Fund. These so-called conservation fees, the revenues collected by renting out the Roman Renaissance-style Eolia mansion at Harkness for weddings and other special occasions, were for years earmarked for upkeep of the mansion, formal gardens and grounds at the 230-acre park overlooking Long Island Sound.

The park's staff, working in tandem with the 1,000-member volunteer group, Friends of Harkness, has done incredible things with the conservation fees in the past. Not only have the Friends labored in the gardens and served as docents for mansion tours, they also had collaborated with the state on plans to restore the historic 6,000-square-foot, circa-1908 greenhouse on the property, a multi-phased project years in the making and applauded by state officials as recently as last fall.

Now the state has grabbed the $750,000 set aside for the project and moved it to the General Fund. This may in a small way help the current budget crisis, but it's a long-term mistake. The state is not a good steward of its own properties, with Harkness a case in point. A gift to the state in 1950, it languished for decades before the Friends of Harkness formed to force the state to action. Since the 1998 restoration of the mansion, the Friends have lived up to their name, doing everything they can to restore Harkness. The park's annual operations budget is $7,500, but mansion function rentals provided an additional $200,000 for maintenance last year.

The loss of those dedicated funds is a serious concern, jeopardizing gains made since the mansion renovation and thwarting the much-heralded greenhouse project. The Friends helped raise those funds and feel like they've been robbed.

Park users, including those who rent the mansion, will suffer as well if Harkness falls back into disrepair for lack of financial support. The joint park/Friends relationship is a model public-private partnership the state should copy elsewhere, not destroy. The legislature should reverse this misguided decision.