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By CHRYSTALL KANYUCK
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Thursday, Oct. 22) _ A report commissioned by Arizona State Parks recommends adding $15 to annual vehicle registrations or finding other dedicated funding to preserve the system.
“Slide Rock, Tonto Natural Bridge, Kartchner Caverns _ these are the remarkable things that make Arizona special, but we’re allowing them to collapse,” Grady Gammage Jr., a senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute, said at a news conference Thursday.
The institute’s report also suggested looking at fees for companies that profit from Arizona’s natural resources through mining, solar power or wind power and partnerships through which local governments help operate the 31 parks.
With the state addressing a budget crisis, Arizona State Parks has seen its operating budget cut to $19 million in the fiscal year that began in July from $26 million the previous year. Entrance fees, which helped fund capital improvements, are now used to cover operating costs.
“There’s not going to be much of park system left with this many unknowns in funding,” said Renee Bahl, executive director of Arizona State Parks.
The agency has shut down McFarland and Jerome state historic parks and Oracle State Park due to budget cuts.
The Arizona State Parks Foundation and Arizona State Parks commissioned the report with private money. The results will inform Gov. Jan Brewer’s Sustainable State Parks Task Force.
Gammage, who also is a member of the task force and serves on the Arizona State Parks Board, called the license plate fee the most promising option. He suggested that people driving cars with Arizona plates could get free admission to state parks.
That kind of stable funding source also would allow Arizona State Parks to address a $52 million backlog of maintenance and repairs, the report said.
“There are really some desperate needs,” Gammage said. “There are walls collapsing. There are sewage systems in some parks that are not consistent with legal requirements.”
The report also recommended looking at a dedicated sales or property tax, bonding and endowments that would combine private donations and public funds.
Tom Jenney, executive director of the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, said increasing taxes on people who don’t necessarily use state parks wouldn’t be fair. He also recommended letting private businesses pay to run concessions such as hotels on park property.
“The bottom line for us is that we’d like to see state parks finance themselves,” Jenney said in a telephone interview.
Gammage said that no state park system is self-funding, adding that it isn’t feasible to run Arizona State Parks on user fees alone.
“The theory sounds nice, but the truth is these are public assets,” he said.
Bill Meek, president of the Arizona State Parks Foundation, said funding state parks is an investment.
“The economic impact of this system is about 10 times what it costs to run the park system, so to allow it to collapse is just insane,” he said. “And yet that’s exactly what we’re doing in this state today.”
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Web Links:
_ Morrison Institute: morrisoninstitute.asu.edu
_ Arizona State Parks: www.azstateparks.com
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PHOTOS: Click thumbnails to see full-resolution images.
STATE PARKS
Renee Bahl, director of Arizona State Parks, speaks after a news conference at which Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy recommended exploring license plate fees and other dedicated funding for the state parks system, which has seen significant budget cuts. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Alexander MacLean)
Wildflowers bloom at Picacho Peak State Park in this undated photo provided by Arizona State Parks. (Photo Courtesy of Arizona State Parks)
Wildflowers bloom at Catalina State Park north of Tucson in this undated photo provided by Arizona State Parks. (Photo Courtesy of Arizona State Parks)
Red Rock State Park is a nature preserve set beneath the majestic rock formations overlooking Sedona. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Andrew Shainker)
Tonto Natural Bridge, the site of a popular state park, lies just north of Payson. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Alyson Zepeda)
Jack Stewart (left) of Flagstaff and Jesse Rodrigues of Prescott, volunteers at Fort Verde State Historic Park, dress in uniforms and show visitors how cavalry members lived with the fort was active in the late 1800s. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Andrea Wilson)