Parks budget includes both cuts and campground upgrades

Budget-setting has started this morning for the state Parks Department, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, and several smaller agencies. Parks have been particularly hard-hit by budget cuts in recent years, and the proposal put together by a group of JFAC members for next year includes another 6.2 percent cut in state general funds. But the budget plan, proposed in JFAC today by Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, also calls for tapping an RV registration fund to pay for campground upgrades and other work designed to help the state parks become more financially self-sustaining in the future.

Rep. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, noted that an advisory committee that’s been recommending where to spend those RV funds has been choosing projects on Forest Service and BLM properties over state parks projects; the budget moves state parks projects, including a $1.8 million second 40-unit campground loop at Henry’s Lake, a $250,000 restroom renovation at Farragut State Park, $600,000 for renovations at Heyburn State Park and $100,000 to retrofit campsites at Round Lake for water and electricity, to the top of the list. The advisory committee still would have nearly $2 million in the fund for grants it chooses, Broadsword noted.

The parks budget plan was approved on a unanimous, 20-0 vote.