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and so how does the vehicle license fee sound to you guys?- 10 dollars a year increase in vehicle registration equals free day use (and consistently funded st. parks). or so i hear.
is this just more of the same from sac: make more spend more.
a misguided view toward resource mgmt. (that more money is a solution)
or a decent idea.
(or maybe we could keep things as is.)

I don't think the extra $10 license fee will make any significant difference. Most of the State Parks I've been to over the last few years seemed to have quite a few volunteers, with very few full-time staff members. What could happen is local communities might be asked to take over some of the parks , either permenantly or on a management basis. I think the state beaches in Southern California might be done this way, although they might become more commecialized (advertising, sponsered concessions and/or equipment) as a way to attract more $$$$ without raising fees for visitors.

I thought the Federal Government promised to take ownership of any state park if California closed it.

Guyzo wrote:I thought the Federal Government promised to take ownership of any state park if California closed it.

This is partially correct. Ownership of certain State Parks that were transfered to the State by the Feds utilizing land transfers include stipulations that the Parks be kept open for public use OR in the case they are closed to the public, the ownership would revert to the Feds.

I am sure that where that stipulation pertained the State re-evaluated their plans but I do not know how extensive the list of parks are that fall under that type of land transfer.

Thank you for clarification.

gk

Looks like an initiative is in the works to impose an $18 vehicle surcharge granting occupants in that vehicle free day use admission to the State Parks:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/14703291/Pa ... et-11-3-09

A good conversation about the matter was on Michael Krasny's KQED Forum:

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R911041000

I hope people don't think Prop 13 is a total savior for people owning houses and having to pay the same taxes every year. My property taxes, which include local things like schools, sewer use, city parks, etc., went up nearly $400 just this year. (Most of that was from local increases, though).

As for fee increases, I know I had to renew my RE license not too long ago. The fee went from around $180 to over $300! That is some seriously crazy stuff right there.

Our CA state tax has already increased....

Like someone else said, what about people on fixed incomes? Suppose you are getting that same amount each month and are retired?

Another big factor in how much money CA is taking in is due to defaults on loans. CA has been hit pretty hard with the mortgage crisis, and if people aren't paying their loans, they're not paying their property tax, either.

On a final note, how much do the state parks constitute over the entire state budget? It can't be very much. Most of the state parks you visit don't even have people at the gates, let alone a ranger who walks around to answer questions. It seems like most places have one ranger who patrols 3 or 4 different parking lots, making sure people have deposited their envelopes for parking and that's about it.

What happened to having a balanced budget anyway?

I remember reading somewhere that CA's economy was actually bigger than some smaller COUNTRIES' economies. Isn't it kind of crazy to think that with places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Hollywood, and San Diego, which all have huge hubs of business, CA doesn't have enough money to make things work?

Gusto

MCGusto wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that CA's economy was actually bigger than some smaller COUNTRIES' economies. Isn't it kind of crazy to think that with places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Hollywood, and San Diego, which all have huge hubs of business, CA doesn't have enough money to make things work?

Gusto

According to The World Factbook published by the CIA, if California were an independent state, it would have had the tenth largest economy in the world in 2007.

MCGusto wrote:I hope people don't think Prop 13 is a total savior for people owning houses and having to pay the same taxes every year. My property taxes, which include local things like schools, sewer use, city parks, etc., went up nearly $400 just this year. (Most of that was from local increases, though).

As for fee increases, I know I had to renew my RE license not too long ago. The fee went from around $180 to over $300! That is some seriously crazy stuff right there.

Our CA state tax has already increased....

Like someone else said, what about people on fixed incomes? Suppose you are getting that same amount each month and are retired?

Another big factor in how much money CA is taking in is due to defaults on loans. CA has been hit pretty hard with the mortgage crisis, and if people aren't paying their loans, they're not paying their property tax, either.

On a final note, how much do the state parks constitute over the entire state budget? It can't be very much. Most of the state parks you visit don't even have people at the gates, let alone a ranger who walks around to answer questions. It seems like most places have one ranger who patrols 3 or 4 different parking lots, making sure people have deposited their envelopes for parking and that's about it.

What happened to having a balanced budget anyway?

I remember reading somewhere that CA's economy was actually bigger than some smaller COUNTRIES' economies. Isn't it kind of crazy to think that with places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Hollywood, and San Diego, which all have huge hubs of business, CA doesn't have enough money to make things work?

Gusto

You said it all...thanks

Dry...... but you will be able to get into the park "for free" ....... what a hoot

This is an Illegal "TAX" I am tired of the BS semantics used. "Surcharge" they call it.

The only thing that will work is to "strangle" the state government of all its funds.

The government has lots of $$$$$$$$$$ ... but the BEAST needs more and more.

As I read it, the $18 will be a one-a-year fee on almost all vehicles, collected by your DMV, and the day use fees will go to zero. The proposal is to have a trust fund that (as planned) can't go into the general fund.

Sounds like a good deal for the folks who actually use the parks a lot. I pay $80/year for a US interagency park pass.

However, vandalism may actually go up if they remove all day use fees.