Background on this here. Basically, while Geren was dishonestly telling the folks that HE was pushing to keep the park, but heck, he had no control over what Jerry Patterson would do as Land Commisioner. But Jerry Patterson, despite statements that said the decision to sell or not was up to him, was telling people it was Rick Perry that would decide.

Perry has also signed off on budgets that redirected tens of millions of dollars away from the parks department to other state agencies. At the same time, the land at Eagle Mountain Lake has remained undeveloped, the result of pervasive budget shortfalls, agency officials say.

The parks department bought the 400 acres at Eagle Mountain Lake in 1980. But in late December, after the state land office declared it an unused state resource, Perry's office authorized its sale. As a condition, Perry's office stipulated that the parks department retain proceeds from the sale and the mineral rights.

Beyond that, whether to go forward with any deal was up to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, said representatives for both the governor's and Patterson's offices. "He [Patterson] makes those decisions," Walt said. She made similar assertions in an Aug. 22 article in the Star-Telegram.

But in a June 9 e-mail to a political supporter, Patterson said "the final decision on the property will be made by the governor." In the same e-mail, Patterson wrote, "I hope to have the governor's decision by summer's end, and we could paper the deal very quickly after that."

In another e-mail, a staffer in Patterson's office writes: "Expect a call from ... an attorney in the governor's office, who is trying to put together the terms and conditions under which this property could be offered at a bid sale."

Rick Perry hates parks and hates Texans. There's no other way to see this. He shifted monies that were supposed to go for the parks into other things, and then worked (IS WORKING) behind the scenes to sell off the parks which are now not able to run properly... because Perry diverted the funds. He doesn't want people to KNOW it's him that's doing all this, because he wants to continue to be *governor*, for all that means, so he must believe it's better to deceive and hope he's not found out.

I'd sure like to hear what Dinosaur Valley State Park thinks about this. Are they shaking in their boots? I would guess that their operating funds have been severely cut as well.