The recent budget extension bill signed by Governor Murphy includes language which would allow the state to solicit bids from private companies to help fund our state parks. This is yet another example of disaster capitalism using the financial crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic to privatize public lands. This opens the door for Liberty National Golf Club to nab the land from the park to build three more holes for the course. The golf club wants this land to allow it to host PGA tournaments. Hudson County lawmakers attempted to preserve this land during the budget battle but Speaker Coughlin pulled the protection act from the agenda. Many of the founding members of the golf club are generous campaign donors to lawmakers in Trenton. The land in question is a rich habitat for nesting birds and is the likely location of the Pavonia Massacre of 1643 when Dutch soldiers murdered indigenous women and children. This land belongs to the public and should not be allowed to become an exclusive golf enclave for the most wealthy among us.

We must not allow a temporary fiscal crisis to be used to take land away from Liberty State Park permanently.