- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05072004/utah/164097.asp
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
"WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to make permanent a fee charged for access to public lands, arguing Thursday that it would help build and maintain the restrooms and visitors centers that tourists demand.
Barry Hill of the General Accounting Office said a pilot fee program has generated more than $1 billion since it was put in place in 1996, with another $184 million in revenue expected this year.
The program is slated to expire at the end of 2005, but Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and representatives of the Interior Department and Forest Service are backing efforts to make the fee program permanent.
That would provide land managers with a constant source of funding to spend on trails, picnic areas, boat ramps and other improvements to help alleviate the Interior Department and Forest Service's maintenance backlog, estimated to be as high as $8.3 billion.
Lynn Scarlett, who is in charge of the Interior Department's budget, told a House Resources subcommittee that the user fees have covered 70 percent of the cost for 44 campsites, trail signs, toilets and other amenities for 1.6 million visitors each year to the Moab area.
But Robert Funkhouser, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, based in Vermont, called the fee program a tax to fund fiscally irresponsible construction programs, specifically citing three visitors centers being built in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. One center alone costs $10 million, he said in a statement to the subcommittee.
Funkhouser said the bill authorizes the government "to charge a basic access tax of Americans that simply set foot or tire on any of the 640 million acres managed by these agencies."
Regula's legislation would create a pass to provide access to recreation sites nationwide and gives the land management agencies more flexibility to use money raised in one area to make improvements at another site.
User fees for the Uinta National Forest and Timpanogos Cave National Monument helped replace 1,500 feet of guardrail along the Alpine Loop Scenic Drive and provided law enforcement with $9,000 for search and rescue efforts and to combat drug and alcohol use.
At Little Sahara Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area, money was used to install concrete vault toilets and put video surveillance cameras inside the visitor center."
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
"WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to make permanent a fee charged for access to public lands, arguing Thursday that it would help build and maintain the restrooms and visitors centers that tourists demand.
Barry Hill of the General Accounting Office said a pilot fee program has generated more than $1 billion since it was put in place in 1996, with another $184 million in revenue expected this year.
The program is slated to expire at the end of 2005, but Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and representatives of the Interior Department and Forest Service are backing efforts to make the fee program permanent.
That would provide land managers with a constant source of funding to spend on trails, picnic areas, boat ramps and other improvements to help alleviate the Interior Department and Forest Service's maintenance backlog, estimated to be as high as $8.3 billion.
Lynn Scarlett, who is in charge of the Interior Department's budget, told a House Resources subcommittee that the user fees have covered 70 percent of the cost for 44 campsites, trail signs, toilets and other amenities for 1.6 million visitors each year to the Moab area.
But Robert Funkhouser, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, based in Vermont, called the fee program a tax to fund fiscally irresponsible construction programs, specifically citing three visitors centers being built in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. One center alone costs $10 million, he said in a statement to the subcommittee.
Funkhouser said the bill authorizes the government "to charge a basic access tax of Americans that simply set foot or tire on any of the 640 million acres managed by these agencies."
Regula's legislation would create a pass to provide access to recreation sites nationwide and gives the land management agencies more flexibility to use money raised in one area to make improvements at another site.
User fees for the Uinta National Forest and Timpanogos Cave National Monument helped replace 1,500 feet of guardrail along the Alpine Loop Scenic Drive and provided law enforcement with $9,000 for search and rescue efforts and to combat drug and alcohol use.
At Little Sahara Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area, money was used to install concrete vault toilets and put video surveillance cameras inside the visitor center."
