Budgets for state parks have been slipping for years.
Whether the current financing is part of a new trend for state parks remains to be seen.
And a proposal to pay for state parks, which narrowly avoid sweeping closings this year, would reintroduce a plan for oil drilling off Santa Barbara.
An earlier proposal to pay for state parks by allowing drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara has been tabled in light of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Jones Beach is looking as good as it ever looked," said Joe Scalise, the director of lifeguards for state parks on Long Island.
Red, white and blue balloons adorned the stage at the historic Rialto Theater here, where four bands serenaded parents and children, activists circulated petitions to protect financing for state parks and college students dressed for a night out.
Their plan would leave spending for state parks at levels high enough that none would have to be closed and it would avoid deep cuts to the State University of New York and City University of New York systems.
George Gorman Jr., the director of administration for state parks on Long Island, said that over all, erosion on the island's state beaches was worse this year than it has been in the past decade.
