Parks Chief Ferrell Seeks Freer Rein On Revenue Use

Feeling the pinch of tight general tax revenues, the state parks chief asked Wednesday for more financial flexibility to meet increasing demands on Idaho’s recreational resources.

Parks and Recreation Director Yvonne Ferrell said even with a substantial increase in camping and other park fees last year, the department is generating only about $18.5 million to operate the 25 state parks.

She said the general tax supplement of $6 million is inadequate to fill the gap.

The department is pressing to spend some fees and other cash without specific legislative authorization and to raise fees by up to a dollar a year without prior approval.

“We think we can tap into new revenue-generating activities if we can be given just a little flexibility,” Ferrell told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

And Fish and Game Director Steve Mealey reiterated his case for a two-phase increase in sportsmen’s fees to bail his beleaguered department out of the financial muck.

The financial bleeding has been stopped for now with some $6 million in budget cuts the past two years, he said. But without the $7.6 million fee increase, the department will be forced to eliminate some programs sportsmen have come to expect, Mealy said.

And in response to questions about declining deer populations due in part to attacks by coyotes and cougars, Mealey raised the spectre of funneling some general tax money into the fight against predators. Gov. Phil Batt said last fall that general tax support of some fish and game programs may be necessary in the future, but not now.

Mealey and Fish and Game Commission Chairman Fred Wood deflected suggestions that already stretched sportsmen’s license revenues should supplement the $100,000 the department now contributes to the Agriculture Department’s animal damage control program.

“There’s a good number of sportsmen at this time who really resent the $100,000,” Wood said. “They don’t think they’re getting the benefit out of it.”

Mealey cited a program in Utah where the state uses general tax money for predator control in areas where the animals are seriously affecting game population.

“Predators affect a lot of people,” Mealey said. “They effect agriculture as well as sportsmen. If there is a solution, it’s a partnership. The resolution lies in exploring ways we can share the cost.”

Ferrell gave budget writers the hard sell on the governor’s plan to buy the Lakeview Village and Nazarene Church Camp on Payette Lake to expand Ponderosa State Park. It will cost $1 million a year in general tax revenue for the next six to nine years.

She argued that to let the property in the middle of the park fall into private hands would be “absolutely criminal,” and that buying the property should have been done a decade ago when it worth just a fraction of the price today.

But she also emphasized the department’s search for alternatives to general tax support for the park system. It experimented last year with selling park-related merchandise at Bruneau Dunes State Park, making $11,000 for improvements there in just a handful of months, and now wants to expand the program to other parks.

“Park users are constantly demanding new services,” Ferrell said, “and we feel if they believe the money is retained in the park, they are willing to pay it.”

Citing the grumbling over last year’s fee hikes and elimination of the unrestricted senior citizen discount, Ferrell said the legislation allowing modest increases of less than a dollar a year without legislative approval would eliminate much of the criticism and help the department keep up with inflation.

It would also allow the department to discount existing fees when use is low in an attempt to draw more people to the parks.

“We’ve heard a lot of complaints, the governor’s gotten a lot of complaints” about last year’s fee hike, she said. “That’s because we had to raise it so much.”