It is the third week of the government shutdown and Congress can still not come up with an agreement. National parks have been closed, workers are still without their jobs, and people are still getting frustrated. However, yesterday morning, New York decided to reopen the Statue of Liberty after the state decided to pay for the reopening. The Statue of Liberty will cost New York $61,600 a day over the next several days from its tourism budget.
“Just on the economics of the matter, it makes obvious sense for us to pay for the costs of operation, which pales in comparison to the amount of money we are now losing,” Cuomo said.
Since the government shutdown on October 1, 2013, Bill Rudin, the chairman of the Battery Conservancy, which operates the 25-acre park and ticketing center for ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, said that 400 jobs have been lost at the Statue of Liberty and surrounding parks.
Rudin estimated that there are about 10,000 daily visitors who pay $35, adding up to losses in the thousands of dollars during the closure.
Just like New York, Arizona and South Dakota struck similar deals to reopen the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. Utah reopened their national parks as well and are paying for them.
Related articles
- US shutdown: Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore to reopen (theguardian.com)
- Statue of Liberty reopens amid federal shutdown (thehimalayantimes.com)
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