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Quoted from appended LA Times article:
[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will raise state park fees to their highest levels ever, making California one of the most expensive places in the country for a family to spend time outdoors in a government-run park.]
Let the following be a warning:
- These dramatically higher fees will keep the public away. -Recent history in California has already shown that!
- Revenues will therefore be less than projected. -You can bank on that!
- The next step will be to commercialize and privatize the parks. -Let there be absolutely no doubt about that!
Advocacy groups that support these increased user-fees may be friends of the parks but they are nothing less than Enemies of Democracy. These groups should be denounced as 'elitists' and every effort must be made to keep public lands truly 'public' and accessible to rich and poor alike.
Scott
PS... for the past 7 years opponents of fee-demo have seen this coming. Perhaps this dramatic development in California will hasten the end of the much-detested, national, Recreation Fee Demonstration Program.
--- begin quoted ---
December 31, 2003
Los Angeles Times
Governor Will Boost Park Fees to New Highs
The increases, expected to
raise $18 million to counteract budget cuts, take effect July 1.
By Miguel Bustillo and Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writers
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will raise state park fees to their highest
levels ever, making California one of the most expensive places in the
country for a family to spend time outdoors in a government-run park.
State officials disclosed Tuesday that beginning July 1, the daily cost
for a family to camp at a state park will nearby double, from a maximum
of $13 to $25. As part of a new sliding scale, fees will be higher
during times such as the Memorial Day weekend when demand is greatest.
Annual passes will rise from $67 to a maximum of $125.
The parks department expects to raise an additional $18 million annually as a result of the new fees.
A year ago, former Gov. Gray Davis, facing his own budget woes,
increased the same fees for activities ranging from camping along the
Santa Barbara County coast to boating in Lake Tahoe to visiting Hearst
Castle.
But California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman said that "after
repeated budget reductions, we have reached the point where there is no
choice" but to raise fees once again to avoid closing more than 100
parks and laying off more than 1,000 employees.
The increases do not need legislative approval.
California's park system is the largest in the nation outside Hawaii
and Alaska. It includes 277 parks with more than 15,000 campsites, 280
miles of coastline and 3,000 miles of trails. It is also the most
popular in the entire country, with more than 85 million visits
annually - a number that has increased 34% in the last four years.
Former Gov. Pete Wilson, who raised park fees by substantial amounts in
response to budget shortfalls during the recession of the early 1990s,
faced a political backlash afterward.
Numerous groups charged that by increasing the cost of camping and
visits to state museums and historic sites, Wilson was effectively
denying poorer residents the chance to enjoy some of the Golden State's
most treasured assets.
Park attendance subsequently dropped and Wilson never realized the revenue gains he had hoped to receive from the fee increases.
Davis, who succeeded Wilson, slashed the fees in half in 2000 - before
reluctantly having to restore them when he faced a financial crisis.
Under Schwarzenegger, the hikes will push fees above Wilson-era levels to a new high.
Some environmental groups criticized Schwarzenegger for raising the
park fees, saying that he should instead target "polluters" and
businesses that use state lands.
"Making citizens pay higher fees to get into their own parks in an
attempt to balance the budget is simply ridiculous," said Dan Jacobson,
legislative director of Environment California.
Some park advocates said that the likely alternative - closing parks - would have been far worse for the public.
"After years of budget cuts, we have reached the point where this is
probably the only sensible choice," said Sara Feldman, Southern
California director of the California State Parks Foundation, a
nonprofit group that promotes the parks.
Asked to comment on how the increases square with Schwarzenegger's
campaign promise not to raise taxes, aides said that there was a
technical difference between fees and taxes, and that the governor had
not broken his no-new-tax vow.
"This is not a tax," state parks spokesman Roy Stearns said Tuesday.
"People have no choice but to pay a tax. People have a choice as to
whether they want to pay this fee. It's like going to the movies."
California parks officials noted that a number of states, including
Washington, Florida, Michigan and Texas, have raised park fees recently
in response to budget troubles.
They pointed out that several Northeastern states, including New
Hampshire and Connecticut, charge camping fees similar to California's
new rates.
Officials conceded that the new fees will make California an expensive
place to camp compared with many other Western states. Colorado, for
example, charges $12 for daily use of a basic campsite, less than half
of what California will charge under the new rates.
Moreover, an annual pass to California state parks will be more than
twice as much as the cost of a yearly pass to the national parks system.
Stearns said the fees will differ from area to area, and even from month to month, fluctuating with demand.
"The fee we will charge on the Fourth of July at Huntington Beach will be different than . a Tuesday in April," he said.
Officials said that since California began to experience financial
problems in 2001, the parks budget has been cut by nearly $20 million,
to $272 million.
As a result, the Parks and Recreation Department has reorganized its
management structure and consolidated 23 park districts into 18,
reducing its work force by 200. The department employs more than 2,200
permanent and 1,500 seasonal workers.
As part of the budget for the next fiscal year, state parks funding is
set to be cut once again, by about $15 million. The $18 million in
additional revenue from the fee hikes would more than offset that
impending cut. The figure assumes a decrease in attendance as a result
of the fee increases.
Some of the extra money - $1 million - will be used to hire more
seasonal workers to collect the fees at kiosks and entrance stations.
The remaining $2 million will be used for park maintenance, officials
said. Because it has been deferring repairs since the 1980s, California
now has a $600-million backlog of 1,200 park maintenance projects.
At Carpinteria State Beach, where several hundred families were
comfortably bivouacked for the week along a mile-long swath of sand
with views of the Channel Islands, many campers responded to the news
with resignation.
Munching a homemade burrito at a wooden picnic table, Los Angeles
Police Officer Tyler Izen said the fee increase for his spot - from $26
nightly in the high season to $39 - would not keep him from returning
to one of the few coastal parks in Southern California with full
utility hookups for his recreational vehicle.
"My wife wants her TV," he said, "and I want my wife to have a smile."
Like others, Izen was more bemused than outraged by the pending
increases - especially following the dramatic fee reductions under
Davis.
"That was kind of foolish in the first place," he said. "They could
have kept the rates where they were and used them to fix up the parks."
Mike Siebers, a glazing contractor from Simi Valley, sounded a common
theme. He said he was OK with the rate hike - as long as the money
actually is spent on the state's parks.
"I don't want it paying off the deficit," he said. "That would just be outrageous."
Nearby, Eric Newberg, taking in the panoramic ocean view with his wife,
Teresa, said the fee hikes probably wouldn't make the spot any less
popular. As it is, most campers made their reservations for this week
at least six months ago.
"They could charge $60 a day and the place would still be packed," said
Newberg, a semi-retired businessman from Woodland Hills. "It's a very
good value."
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