With a $2.2 million hole to plug in the governor’s share of a leaking state budget, the state’s Parks and Recreation Commission may consider closing South Whidbey State Park to save a few bucks.

A list of several state parks released this week shows South Whidbey’s park in the second group of parks slated for possible closure unless the parks commission can find other places to cut expenses or increase revenue. Facing a potential budget shortfall of more than $1 billion in 2002, the government agencies around the state are looking for places to cut.

According to Virginia Painter, a spokeswoman for the parks commission, South Whidbey State Park would not be one of the first parks closed if the commission cannot make enough cuts in maintenance and personnel to make up for its portion of the budget shortfall. The commission will first close parks it leases from the federal government or state public utility districts. Among the first to shut their gates would be Potholes State Park, Crow Butte, Tacoma’s Lake Cushman and nine other parks on the top of the commissioner’s list.

South Whidbey State Park is one of 22 parks on the commission’s second list of possible closures.

Painter said that at this point, the parks staff have done so little research into the cuts they need to make that they don’t know if any parks will need to be shut down.

“We just don’t know anything,” she said. “The outlook does not look good.”

The commissioner may try to increase revenue by increasing its camping fees, a move that would move the agency away from a cutting mentality. Painter said the leased parks will not cease to exist if the parks commission decides to shut them down. The leases will simply be turned back to the agencies that own them.

Painter did not say whether the commission has a timeline in mind for making its decisions.