Day Trips
Don't mess with Texas, unless it comes to per capita spending on parks, where we are ranked 49th in the country
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Dec. 29, 2006
Counting horned lizards on license plates is just one of the mindless games I play while stuck in traffic. My truck sports a set of the specialty plates, too, so I have a passing interest in like-minded motorists.
I have to admit that I purchased the plates partially to add a splash of color to my all-white vehicle. I also liked the idea that a portion of the $30 added to my vehicle registration for this fashion statement goes to our state parks. Or at least that's what I was led to believe.
Evidently a lot of other people were also fooled into thinking that they were donating $22 (administration takes $8) to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department when they bought the specialty license plates. It's the third-most-popular plate of the many kinds Texas Department of Transportation offers. Since it was introduced in 2000 through 2005, 75,924 of the horned lizard plates have raised more than $1 million. Add to that the bluebonnet, hunting, and fishing plates, and you have nearly $2.4 million in five years.
The problem is the Legislature has to move the money from one account into TPWD's budget. Even though sales of the conservation plates amounted to more than $533,126 in 2005, the state budget writers only transferred $106,000. Technically the $2 million-plus in the dedicated account can only be spent on state parks, but the money helps the tax-cutting Legislature balance the budget, at least on paper.
This isn't the only sleight of hand that our representatives are pulling at the expense of TPWD. As if the 10 million visitors to state parks wouldn't notice that there isn't a ranger to greet them and the toilets are closed.
With declining cigarette sales, the funding for the parks was shifted from a portion of the cigarette tax to a portion of the sales tax on sporting goods in 1993. Now comes the shell game. Of the roughly $100 million collected from the sporting-goods tax in 2005, the Legislature capped the amount that TPWD could have at $20 million a year.
The tax money going to parks in 2005 is down from $35 million in 2000, when I wrote an article about the more than $125 million backlog in needed repairs to facilities around the state. As our parks continue to deteriorate, the number of visitors has dropped to half. At the same time, the number of parks and historic sites has been whittled down from 123 to 114.
The result of the state's penny-pinching has been predictable. Tours of Matagorda Island are no longer available. Parts of Palo Duro Canyon, Possum Kingdom, and other state parks are closed to the public. Fort McKavett, Caddoan Mounds, and other historic sites are only open on weekends. The greatest outcry so far came when TPWD threatened to stop running the Texas State Railroad between Rusk and Palestine. Somehow state leaders found $650,000 in emergency money to keep the major East Texas tourist attraction rolling through next August.
One thing that hasn't changed since I wrote that article is our ranking as 49th among all states in per capita spending on parks. Hey, at least we're better than Mississippi. Oops, Mississippi spends almost three times what we do per resident on state parks. Well, at least we're not as bad as Arizona.
Last legislative session, state Rep. Harvey Hildebran, R-Kerrville, tried to raise the sporting-goods tax cap to $85 million, and he says he will try again in 2007. On the campaign trail, Gov. Rick Perry said we should give all of the tax to parks. Democratic challenger Chris Bell recommended that the governor use $100 million from his Enterprise Fund to create jobs in state parks.
As the Legislature returns to Austin this January, they give with one hand and take away with the other. State Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, has proposed giving TPWD all of the sporting-goods tax. But because TPWD has done such a horrible job maintaining the historic sites, Miller says the sites should be transferred to the Texas Historical Commission. He hasn't said how he would pay for the move.
809th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips" 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
