Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the National Park System locations that have moved to cashless systems for entrance fees/Kurt Repanshek file
The National Park Service's increasing move to only accept credit cards for entrance to parks has driven three visitors to sue the agency, saying its policy is unreasonable and an abuse of discretion and that federal law states that legal tender is suitable "for all public charges."
Esther van der Werf of Ojai, California, Toby Stover, of High Falls, New York, and Elizabeth Dasburg, of Darien, Georgia, brought the lawsuit [attached below] earlier this month after being told their U.S. currency would not be accepted for entry into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tonto National Monument, Saguaro National Park, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site, and Fort Pulaski National Monument.
"NPS’s violation of federal law cannot be overlooked in favor of any purported benefit NPS cashless could hope to achieve, such as reducing logistics of handling cash collected," reads a section of the lawsuit. "Moreover, there is an increased cost to the NPS in going cashless, such as additional processing fees that will be borne by NPS and by visitors who ultimately fund the federal government through taxes, in addition to personal surcharges and bank fees visitors may incur under NPS cashless policy.
"However, plaintiffs do not ask the court to prohibit NPS from accepting credit cards, debit cards, or digital payment methods (such as ApplePay) should visitors to NPS sites prefer to use them. Rather, plaintiffs ask the court to restore entrance to NPS sites to those who cannot access non-cash payment methods (and those who choose not to) by declaring NPS cashless to be unlawful."
According to the lawsuit, Stover was denied entrance to the FDR home at Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site when she tried to pay the fee with a $10 bill.
Van der Werf asked Saguaro National Park staff in an email if she could pay with cash and was told, "[W]e do not have the capability to accept cash. On your way to Arizona, you might be able to stop at a park that does accept cash and purchase an Interagency Annual pass.”
Organ Pipe Cactus staff sold van der Werf that, "[W]e do not accept cash for those transactions. At the visitor center we only accept card transactions. Take care. . .”
Dasburg was told by Fort Pulaski staff that she could "go to the local grocery stores or big chains like Walmart to purchase a gift card. Since those are cards, we can accept them in leu [sic] of cash.”
Among National Park System units that don't accept cash, or soon won't, for entrance are Mount Rainier, Death Valley, Lassen Volcanic, Rocky Mountain, Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments, Badlands National Park, and Wind Cave National Park (for cave tours).
In announcing the decision to go cashless, parks say, "[M]oving to a cashless system allows the park to be better stewards of visitor dollars by reducing the cost of collecting and managing fees, increasing the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services, and improving accountability and reducing risk.
Comments
Yessss. This removes accessibility, not accepting legal, federal tender. I hope they win
The Swamp preaches and chants about inclusivity until it becomes inconvenient to accomodate the indigent or the undocumented who may not be able to secure cards.
The reason, I hope, that NPS doesn't want cash? We have volunteered at Visitor Centers, and we do not want cash. We always make a point of stating we have no cash available. My safety is more important than your convenience. Many booths are remote, one LE for thousands of acres, and we are not allowed to carry.
It's not about convenience, it is about following the law. On every denomination it states that it is legal tender for all debts both public and private. In other words, you can't refuse to accept it.
I can understand the National Park Service's reasons for going cashless, but overall I disagree with their policy.
Some of the pros of going cashless are reducing the number of money-handling employees a business has. But businesses never pass-on that salary-saving cost reduction to the customer. They do, however, pass-on the added banking fees for bank card transactions to the customer.
Going cashless also cuts down on employee cash theft; however, it doesn't necessarily cut down on employee or customer product theft.
And there is also the risk of robbery at remote cash-accepting facilities.
The cons of going cashless are every bit as important. Going cashless shows prejudice and discrimination against marginalized and lower income communities. Approximately 25% of this nation's public are bankless; and, of that 25%, the majority are non-white, which also makes going cashless racist.
The only win-win situation that I can see is that the National Park Service takes the money that they save from eliminating most of their money-handling positions and spends it on money-accepting machines that can issue a printed paper park pass to the cash-paying customer. These machines are already in use in most California State Parks; however, they are slowly being eliminated in lieu of electronic apps that require a bank card. These policies of eliminating cash and eliminating cash-accepting machines needs to be reversed.
Now that I've solved that problem, the next issue is making 25% of all campground campsite non-reservation first-come-first-served campsites, for those campers that don't have Internet access.
Just part of the process of moving us to a cashless society. Can't track or control if we can use cash.
I absolutely agree that not only National Parks, but every entity that receives payments or fees that people ordinarily have to pay should be required to accept cash.
In removing a cash option, many people without access to credit or other forms of cashless payments are disadvantaged, as well as people who don't want to be tracked everywhere they go. I can't believe a park denied access to someone on this basis. For shame!
I personally use credit most places, but I should have the choice to pay in cash where and when I want to. Convenience -- for sellers, for customers, and for people like travelers in airports -- is being used as a the thin edge of a wedge to sneakily force compliance with all kinds of increased surveillance, and credit card or other cashless payments are one way people can be surveilled.
I was so proud of the Parks Service when that deplorable thing managed to get itself elected to the office of the presidency, the way you folks stood up against its despotic manipulation of your park sites. But now? I'm re-thinking that. Keep parks accessible to everyone!
It is about following the law. On every denomination, it states that it is legal tender for all debts both public and private. In other words, you can't refuse to accept it. All businesses should expect cash payments.