Do you send the Park Service a little extra $$$?/Kurt Repanshek
After you've purchased your annual parks pass, or paid your week-long entrance fee to your favorite national park, how much more money do you send to the National Park Service?
In these days of fragile funding for the National Park System, that seems a fair question to ask. After all, federal funding for the parks is not growing in leaps and bounds, and parks are raising fees. And yet, if you're over 62 years old, ten bucks will get you a lifetime pass to the parks. If you volunteer in the parks, and have put in at least 250 hours, you get a free pass. If you're a member of the military, you get a free annual pass.
While the National Park Service doesn't seem to be moving in the direction of increasing those fees, there's nothing to prevent you from sending the parks additional dollars at the entrance gate to your favorite park.
Do you?
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Comments
I typically send about $100 per year to the NPS foundation.
I also donate on site, such as the boxes at the visitors centers. Usually $10 here and $10 there but, with the time we spend in the parks, it adds up.
Currently, I am a full time camper/rver. If I am near a federal park, be it NFS, BLM, COE, or NPS, I stay there. If not, I use the state parks. In the last 10 months, at least 85% of my camping fees were paid to government entities. While there, I also pick up trash because it is 'my' park. Next year, we also have plans to start volunteering in parks; while this does not add money to their coffiers, it does save the park money.
We have quite a few years before we qualify for the 'geezer' pass. 1/2 price camping! Our budget will suddenly have a lot of room. But, chances are, we will find a way to put the funds toward the parks. Without the existence of the National Parks, we probably wouldn't be on the road today.
Not as much as I should, but pretty much as much as I can afford. I do contribute a goodly amount to the Yellowstone Association, though.
Gonna have to take another look at the budget.
A good question .... and a reminder that those of us who have a Senior Pass don't have to use it when we get to a park entrance station. We could choose to just pay the regular fee.
On a related note, perhaps the upcoming NPS centennial is the time to seriously discuss giving Americans the option of designating a small part of their federal income taxes to go directly to the NPS via a "check-off" box on our federal tax returns - similar to the option to give to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. If that were to occur, any funds generated should be used for specific purposes, such as to help reduce the maintenance backlog.
Jim - the problem with your check off box suggestion is that funds are fungible. You check off the box and Congress just assumes they don't have to fund that money. The Presidential check of "works" only because the government doesn't otherwise (to my knowledge) fund Presidential elections.
Kurt's article indirectly makes a great point. Of all the moaning about park funding, how many of these complainers have stepped up and contributed money? It's like all those complaining that taxes should be higher but I haven't seen any of them write a check. Come on Warren - oh that's right, you don't even pay taxes you do own.
ec, you are correct about the risk (likelihood) that Congress would simply reduce funding for the NPS to offset any gains from a checkoff option. That said, it's at least worth a shot. If nothing else, it would be a way for taxpayers to demonstrate their support for parks.
Why do members of the military get a free pass?
Hmmm, I wonder....to what extent would the present impoverished NPS naturalist/educational/interpretive programs be stimulated if park rangers (and park volunteers) performing this work were permitted to accept tips from park visitors for outstanding service?
Owen!
For Heaven's sake be quiet.
Next thing you know Congress will decide to treat rangers like waitresses in restaurants. Work like a slave for $1.25 and whatever tips you receive.
Don't give those beggars any more bad ideas. They generate enough of their own.
Repent, man. Repent!
I gave the Great Smoky Mtns National Park about $80 million in extra stimulus monies a couple of years ago and they thanked me by instituting fees for firefly viewing and backcountry camping. Those monies are tax dollars and they come from taxpayer pockets. Presently I give them several hours volunteer work per week and they still make me pay to use the park. They will get no more money from my pocket until they quit lying and fee grabbing and Jarvis is gone for good and an honest administration takes the helm at the National Fee Service. 80 million extra stimulus dollars is 4 times the GRSM annual budget. But there is never enough money for these bureaucrats. Money is the cure for all the park woes, according to the NPS. I disagree. Honest mangement that follows civic engagement process is the antidote.
I do have my geezer pass, which on my fixed retirement income is nice. I'm a confirmed gift shop junkie - I visit a park, I have to buy their swag. If there are donation boxes, I drop what I can.
Being a bit closer to the parks than some [married to an employee] I also donate 'in kind' nickle and dime all the time. Haul stuff for my wife from one place to another to help her on the job when she can't get a park vehicle. Host the potluck for the entire park staff in my back yard every summer. Hell, there is even a simulated camp site in one of the museum exhibits that has a chunk of my firewood in it. As I say, these sorts of things are nickle and dime, but I feel good about them because it is what I can do.
Eric - I heard you discuss the question in the article above, but I didn't hear you answer the question.
While I sympathize with your sentiment the praticality escapes me. Are we to put a check box for every budget line item on the tax return? I know that isn't what you are proposing but why would NPS deserve a box any more than any other agency?
Unfortunately, we live in a world where people like to complain but aren't willing to lift a finger - or their wallets - to do anything about it.
I bought a full priced annual pass and have spent considerable monies within the Parks. Like most everyone else here, I haven't written an unsolicted check. Unlike many here, I haven't complained about the fees I do pay nor claimed that underfunding was the cause for any and all of the parks' problems.
I also disagree with the underlying pretense of this article. Not everyone agrees that the NPS is underfunded. Let's take a look at the salary load for bureaucrats in the NPS, that would be a journalistic undertaking. Compare it with other agencies within the federal government and then let's start a real discussion instead of a knee-jerk, feel good, Ken Burns type of "we are all in agreement about the poor NPS" article.
It's absurd to think you can compare the Parks Service with other federal agencies that don't manage millions of acres of land (and the Forest Service/BLM are not appropriate comparisosn as well, as their mission in management is entirely different). Maybe a State Parks agency could provide a better comparison.
Gila Monster asked why members of the military get a free annual pass. It's because the Obama administration decided to do that to show support for them. It's not just the military member him/herself that gets a pass, so does any military dependent over age 16. (Age 16 and under is exempt from entrance fees.)
I agree with Smokiesbackpacker that like any other federal agency, there is not enough money in the world to satisfy the NPS and get them to stop claiming to be underfunded. This is not unique to them, the Forest Service and BLM constantly make the same complaint and they do a much poorer job than the NPS does of documenting what they spend their funding on.