Butano State Park: closed for the winter due to budget cuts.
A committee of conservation groups yesterday took the first step towards bringing a new and sustainable funding mechanism for California’s State Parks to a vote of the people.
The State Parks Access Pass, which was unsuccessfully raised as a legislative solution to the parks budget shortfall earlier this year, would assess an annual $18 surcharge to all California non-commercial vehicle registrations in order to raise an estimated $500 million each year for operation of the state’s 278 parks.
All registered California vehicles, and their occupants, would then receive free access for parking and day use instead of the $10-15 entry fees assessed at the parks currently. Camping and other additional park services would still require their current fees, and all out of state vehicles would continue to pay current parking and access charges.
The exploratory committee, Californians for State Parks and Wildlife Conservation, has only just begun a feasibility study of the possible measure, and a full statewide signature gathering effort would be required prior to its qualification for the ballot. However the committee yesterday filed with the state Attorney General’s office for the ballot title “State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act” with a target of the November 2010 general election.
California’s State Parks system has been buffeted by budget pressures for the past several years. In 2008 a proposal by Governor Schwarzenegger to close 48 parks was rejected by the State Legislature. In 2009 park closure proposals ranged from over 200 parks, down to none, although currently a total of 143 parks are either partially closed or subject to service reductions due to the state’s budget shortfall.
"Our state parks were once considered the best in the nation,” said California State Parks Foundation President Elizabeth Goldstein, “and now they're falling apart and threatened with closure because they have no reliable source of funding. This parks measure would create a dedicated funding source to prevent park closures, eliminate a backlog of more than a billion dollars in repairs and properly maintain parks and other natural resources for our children and grandchildren to enjoy."
The California State Parks Foundation is joined on the measure’s exploratory committee by The Nature Conservancy in California and the Save the Redwoods League.
The vehicle registration surcharge would apply to all cars, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles. Vehicles subject to the Commercial Vehicle Registration Act, mobile homes, and permanent trailers would be exempt from the surcharge.
The act as currently proposed would require 85% of the money raised in this manner to be spent directly on maintaining and operating State Parks, with 15% available to other state wildlife and ocean protection agencies.
The act would make the approximately $130 million of the current parks budget available for other uses within California’s General Fund.
For more info: please see the California State Parks Foundations State Park Access Pass page. For more information on State Parks in and around the Bay Area, please visit the SF Nature Travel Examiner page.
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