Around 160 state parks and recreation workers will get a call Tuesday letting them know their position has been eliminated in an effort to close the agency's budget gap.

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission met Tuesday to decide how to make roughly $11 million in budget reductions amid lower than projected revenue. They have also prepared for a potential revenue shortage as high as $30 million.

"This affects a lot of people, this is pretty devastating to us," said agency Spokesperson Virginia Painter. "It's really hard, it's not what we would like."

Painter said the state's aging park system, the fourth oldest in the country, will take a hit, and the public will notice that parks are less maintained.

The current plan, however, leaves parks open year round and adjusts employees on a seasonal basis, ensuring that there are enough employees to operate the parks during peak tourism months.

"The public, in the summertime, will see that they'll have as many staff there this coming summer, even during this economic downturn, as we have now," Painter said.

The agency hopes to build support for the newly created Discover Pass, a pass that the public can buy to get access to any state park. It was created in July to replace General Fund tax dollars that are no longer available to operate state recreation lands.

However, the Discover Pass is not raising the cash officials expected.

"I heard from dozens of people personally that just said, `I'm not buying it,'" said state Sen. Kevin Ranker, who is writing a proposed update to the law he sponsored that created the pass.

Brandi Kruse, 97.3 KIRO FM

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