Like every aspect of California government, state parks are in financial troubled waters.
As an outdoors enthusiast I am saddened by this inevitable outcome. As a result, many parks will be boarded up or padlocked and left unavailable to Californians and tourists.
I believe we could remediate the problem through a variety of means, including partnering with private industry to offer more services; subletting to counties, cities or non-profits; allowing more volunteers to work at our parks, and charging more at the gate.
Environmentalists have other ideas. They are after the wallets of California car owners by way of a $15 per year hike on vehicle registration fees. This is an unfair idea, as it’s not safe to assume that every car owner visits state parks. There’s no nexus to this scheme. I mean why must my mother, who owns a car strictly for driving to the store and church, subsidize my outdoor activities?
The environmentalist groups must collect more than a half million signatures to qualify the proposal for the November 2010 ballot. When signature gatherers are outside of Wal-Mart, I wonder how many California vehicle owners will readily sign on to the proposal – especially after shelling out nearly double the money this year for car license fees, thanks to the Legislature’s tax raising actions in February.