Posted on 10/25/2017 7:05:24 AM PDT by rktman
The National Parks Service (NPS) is proposing a fee hike during peak periods of visitation for select parks to help pay for $11.3 billion worth of needed maintenance.
The hike would apply to 17 parks during their busiest five consecutive months of the year, and it would raise NPS revenue by an estimated $70 million per year. During peak visitation periods, selected parks would cost $70 for a car or truck, $50 for a motorcycle, or $30 for a person on bike or foot, according to an NPS press release.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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This is one rate increase I agree with. The Parks deserve better funding.
Can someone tell me why, with all the taxes that the federal government collects, that it needs to charge Disneyworld prices to enter a National Park?
Is this the same agency that was going to honor the Black Panthers?
I want rangers that I can trust.
nature is big bidness... they have to advertise going to the forest it’s not that far away... so they want attendance to decrease so more the animals can relearn how to survive without people.
Meanwhile there are more people on “EBT” “Food Stamps” in Oregon than there are kids in public schools.
Perhaps firing all the people that are so good at mismanaging federal services is job number one?
At Yellowstone a couple years ago, people coming out of the park were handing their receipts to people going in so they wouldn’t have to pay.
Got my Senior Pass as well for $10. They went up to $70, I believe.
While at Mt Rushmore this summer, we were ‘treated’ to an entirely Leftist view of the Constitution, by a ranger in the amphitheater. She started out with ‘in the beginning, only White landowners were allowed to vote’. She then went on to chronicle the various ‘others’ and when they were granted the vote. This all may be true, but not giving context for these decisions was really slanted. The 8 years of Obama have really compromised ALL areas of our Government. All I could think about was the kids listening. They are indoctrinated at school and now on their summer vacations, too.
Great idea! (1) Price them out of affordability (2) See far fewer tickets (3) Have fewer voters who feel indebted and grateful for having been able to appreciate what they’re paying for.
Seriously, folk: You’re competing with other vacation possibilities. When a resort struggles to make ends meet, do you think they just say, “No problem, we’ll just raise the prices?” How much LESS can the National Parks Service do that when public support acts as a multiplier for fees received?
And it’s worse still! When Joe Schmoe pays a nominal fee for a national park, he’s willing to see his taxes support that park. When he pays a substantial fee, he figures he’s already paid, and becomes angry when you tax him for it.
There should be a two-tier system for Americans and foreign tourists with the foreigners paying twice as much. If they are going to crowd our parks they could at least help subsidize the experience for us.
The increase will raise $70 million toward an $11 billion need. A drop in the bucket. If this were a business the manager would be required to show a comprehensive plan addressing the entire $11 billion need.
The truth is the park service is managing too many parks that receive little visitation and draw needed resources from the popular parks people visit in numbers. The last few presidents have designated hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands as new national parks and monuments without considering how the management and administration of these new parks will be funded, much less if the American people will visit them. Add to presidential proclamations a Congress that funds billions for foreign aid to third world countries, billions for corporate welfare such as Solyndra and Tesla, and funds countless military adventures in countries like NIger yet closes the purse strings when it comes to maintain the national parks where millions of middle income taxpayers vacation each year.
The Congress and the president should require the Secretary of the Interior a plan to meet the infrastructure needs of the parks even if funding requires selling off some of the parks or opening some of those infrequently visited to mining, grazing and logging. It is long past time for the perfumed desk jockeys in the Washington bureaucracy to be jerked out of fantasyland and into the real world where choices must be made.
Park funding was cut deeply under Clinton and it is to Dubya’s shame that the funding was not reinstated. Obama could not have cared less about the parks, and Trump needs a republican house and senate to get a budget passed, OOPs! Did insay that?
Haven’t seen if funding is increased in the Trump budget proposal. It is a shame there are fees for national parks, these are the people’s parks and should be showplaces of America for all citizens to enjoy.
At Rushmore, at least this year, they tie receipts to license plates, so not as easy to game the system.
Time for most of the “national parks” to revert to the states.
The National Parks are, in MOST cases, just another federal goobermint land grab/scam.
No problem with this, PROVIDED 100% of the money goes to park maintenance.
Sarcasm? Perhaps..
LOL! Yup, and some are still waiting for the promise of 40 acres and a mule.
Well except some are part of the world heritage site BS controlled by the UN. We should “un-designate” ANY US park and remove any u.n input.
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