In its endless search under the state’s couch cushions for nickels and dimes, Albany says it has found a chunk of change that will add up to a million dollars a year, in the form of park passes issued to disabled people who aren’t really disabled.  The state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation on Wednesday proposed eliminating or limiting two categories of qualified persons under its Access Pass program, which gives reduced or free admission to parks, campsites, golf course and other state-operated recreational facilities.  One category is the “semi-ambulatory.” The other is people receiving any of several federal disability benefits: Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income and Railroad Retirement Board Disability.  The latter category includes hundreds, maybe thousands of retired employees of the Long Island Rail Road, who were made famous in a 2008 New York Times investigative article for their remarkable ability to milk the federal disability system. Upwards of 90 percent of the railroad’s career employees, including those with desk jobs, applied for and received disability payments soon after retirement, The Times found.  After The Times article was published, parks officials said there was no legal justification for the former railroad workers to be playing golf for free and promised that they would have “something more definitive to say” soon.  The two categories that the state is proposing to eliminate account for 65 percent of the 34,000 Access Pass holders, the state said. All together, Access Pass holders receive $3 million worth of benefits a year, the state said.  “Since the Access Pass was adopted in 1977, it has grown well beyond its original intent,” Carol Ash, the state parks commissioner, said in a statement. “What started out as a program intended to provide recreational opportunity to individuals with specific disabilities has expanded dramatically.”  The following categories of people will still be automatically entitled to Access Passes: the blind, the deaf, the nonambulatory, amputees, disabled veterans and the mentally disabled. People receiving the federal disability benefits, including the railroad benefit, can still qualify, just not automatically.  The state will be accepting public comments on the proposed change until May.
The state moves to eliminate free admission for some people to state parks, golf course and other recreational facilities under a program, intended for the seriously disabled, that has been abused in the past.