Task force recommends raising state park fees

PHOENIX — Arizona motorists should pay an extra $14 or $15 a year in registration fees to keep the state parks system operating, a special task force is recommending.

In a report to Gov. Jan Brewer, the panel concluded the parks system "is threatened with extinction and cannot survive under a roller-coaster system of financial support.'' Committee members said even if half of motorists opted out — something they would legally be able to do — the program could raise $40 million a year.

In exchange, vehicle owners would get a special tag that would provide free entry into any state park. But they would still have to pony up for anything beyond that admission, ranging from overnight camping to tours through Kartchner Caverns, though the fee might be reduced.

But the plan will get a fight, even with the opt-out provision.

"It's very unfair, it's deceptive and it's not good tax policy,'' said Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. Kavanagh, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said the people who use the parks should be the ones who pay for their maintenance and operation.

Beyond that, he said, there is no connection between owning a car and using a park. Kavanagh said if he's going to charge motorists more, it's going to be for something with a nexus, whether better roads or air pollution.

A task force to study "sustainable'' parks was convened last year but made no progress. Brewer re-established the panel in March in the wake of sharp cuts in what the system got in state tax dollars, cuts that ultimately resulted in the closure of several parks and curtailed hours at 17 others.

Brewer said she wanted the group to find "creative ways'' to keep the system operating.

Central to the plan is getting a source of dollars that are not dependent on legislative appropriation and subject to being curtailed when lawmakers are looking for ways to save money.

The report says the money generated by the vehicle registration surcharge will not be enough to allow for acquisition and development of new parks to meet the state's population growth.

"But we expect the surcharge will pay for the annual operation of the parks system, plus a reasonable amount to cure the most critical unmet capital needs within five to six years,'' the study reads, pegging those needs at about $5 million a year.

"One of the main attributes of this program is that revenue would grow at about the same rate as population growth,'' the report continues. The trade-off for Arizona vehicle owners would be unlimited free admission into any park; those from elsewhere would have to continue to pay.

But that leaves the question of whether the plan essentially forces people to pay.

"I think the majority sentiment would have been just to have the surcharge, period,'' said Bill Meek, a member of the task force, with the owner of every noncommercial vehicle in the state paying the extra fee. He said, though, many on the task force said there needed to be an opt-out "so that people can avoid paying the fee if that's what they really want to do.''

Rich Dozer, who chairs the panel, was more blunt.

He said creating a mandatory fee for everyone would not be politically possible. By contrast, Dozer said, he thinks lawmakers - who would need to approve any plan - would go along with a fee hike that had an escape clause.

And Meek said there was no interest on the panel in creating an "opt-in'' system, where vehicle owners would affirmatively have to decide to pay the additional cash, versus having it charged to them unless they take the steps to exempt themselves.

Kavanagh said that goes to what he said is the plan's dishonesty.

He said the state of Washington tried an opt-in $5 surcharge and found after four months that only 1.4 percent of those registering their vehicles agreed to pay. When they went to an opt-out system, the response rate went to 50 percent, "which says that if you do this, almost everybody ... will not see the check box and (make) a contribution they ordinarily would not have made.''

Repeated calls to the governor's office seeking her opinion on the recommendation were not returned.

Dozer said there are other political hurdles. One is that most lawmakers live in Maricopa County, where there are no state parks.

"However, everybody looks at this as a statewide effort. The people that go to the parks are not just the people from the outlying communities.''

And Dozer said he believes a case can be made to those urban lawmakers that their constituents want access to state parks.

"With what's going on in the economy right now with people cutting their vacations down, looking for closer vacations, cheaper vacations, it's great for our residents to be able to go to Kartchner or able to go to Slide Rock or Picacho or Lake Havasu,'' he said.

The report does say, though, that if funds are available, there should be an effort to build more parks in what they called the "sun corridor'' running from Nogales up through the Tucson and Phoenix areas into Yavapai County.

Even with a license surcharge, panel members want the governor and lawmakers to restore some tax dollars to running the system.

The report says that one risk of the license tag surcharge is it may not be possible to predict how much money the parks system will have each year. To account for that, committee members are asking lawmakers to impose a small fee on industries that have an effect on the environment, including logging, mining and energy production, with the additional possibility of some sort of tax on tourism-related industries that benefit from the parks.