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HOME  - Privatization Cash-Carry Privatized Parks
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Cash-Carry Privatized Parks |
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Written by Scott Silver
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Tuesday, 27 April 2004 |
Wilbur LaPage, for those who do not know him, is almost singularly responsible for moving New Hampshire State Parks to a 100% cash-carry funding basis. Under his leadership, that park system transitioned from being funded through general revenues to being funded entirely from user-fees and similar sources. (See appended article from the extremely conservative, pro-wise-use, rabidly-anti-environmental, Heartland Foundation).
Wilbur LaPage happened to also have been one of the commissioners on President Ronald Reagan's President's Commission on Americans Outdoors.... the commission that first advanced the concept of charging and RETAINING LOCALLY recreation fees for the National Parks and other federally-managed public lands. It was the PCAO that recommended turning outdoor recreation into saleable commodities in support of industrial tourism. In fact, the PCAO did a great deal of harm to the concept of public lands as a public resource, and to the ideal of having a "Great Outdoors" that serve a public good available to all Americans regardless of their economic means.
The head commissioners on Reagan's PCAO, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Derrick Crandall (President of the American Recreation Coalition), are two of the most vocal proponents of fee-demo today. Alexander testified in support of fee-demo as recently as last Wednesday (4/21). One of ARC's board members testified at that same hearing while Crandall watched from the spectator's area.
I mention all of this not because I oppose RESTORE's efforts to create a better Maine. I do so to warn folks that when LaPage speaks of "creating a national park (that) could be the economic engine that revitalizes the region".... there's probably more to what he's saying than may meet the eye of the casual observer.
Same thing can, and should, be said about fee-demo.
Scott
PS... you might recognize the Fran Mainella quote about this being a "value added society" in the short article which follows. These ideas don't just materialize from thin air. They have history and they are part of a bigger agenda.
----begin quoted ----
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=14001
New Hampshire Shows Way to Self-Sufficiency of Parks
Written By: Environment & Climate News staff
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: August 1, 1997
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
In yet another example of how Washington can learn from energetic,
cost-conscious state governments, New Hampshire's state park system--24
natural areas, 12 historic sites, and 36 diverse recreation areas--is
enjoying its seventh year of self-sufficiency.
The park system's income--fees, rents, and commissions--is supplemented
by an extensive volunteer corps and a growing array of innovative
partnership programs. New Hampshire's park system, characterized by low
overhead, high volunteerism, and highly motivated employees, provides a
revealing contrast with America's famed national parks, many of which
are in a state of gross disrepair. While the National Park Service
recovers less than 10 percent of its costs through user fees, New
Hampshire's parks earn well over 100 percent.
As noted by Wilbur LaPage in the Summer 1995 issue of Different
Drummer, volunteer efforts, largely absent from the national parks, are
a key component of New Hampshire's success. LaPage points out that
volunteers have opened parks early, kept them open late, provided
interpretive services, hosted special events, raised funds, and
provided an added degree of park protection that is invaluable.
According to LaPage, higher user fees and growing public involvement in
the parks are really two sides of the same coin. "In fact," he says,
"park advocacy and stewardship may well increase with the stronger
sense of ownership that comes from paying directly for direct benefits."
PF: Wilbur LaPage's "New Hampshire's Self-Funding State Parks,"
published in the Summer 1997 issue of Different Drummer, is available
through PolicyFax. Call 847/202-4888 and request document #2316417 (5
pages). Also from that issue of Different Drummer, see "Texas'
Entrepreneurial Budget system," by Ron Holliday, PolicyFax document
#2316416 (5 pages).
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