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Fee Programs

User fees

Ron C. Judd / Seattle Times staff columnist
Sunday, March 25, 2001, 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Love them? Hate them? Get used to them. The federal government's three-year "experiment" with charging to get into federal lands you already own is well into Year Five and showing no signs of relenting. This in spite of the fact the program seems to be, at least by our standards, failing miserably to live up to its promise.

Specifically, Forest Service propaganda boldly states, "Proceeds go directly into restoring ecosystems, improving services and maintaining recreation facilities in your national forests."

What they don't tell you, but did concede to Congress in a fiscal-year 2000 report (www.doi.gov/nrl/Recfees/2001Report.PDF):

. While literature constantly preaches "ecosystems" as a priority, between 20 and 40 percent of proceeds, depending on the area, goes directly towards administering and collecting fees - and policing the parking passes, a practice the Forest Service has vowed to step up this summer. Another 30 percent falls into an amorphous "operations" category. And virtually all that's left is used to reduce maintenance backlogs on restrooms, roads, campgrounds, and, of course, offices for federal bureaucrats.

Example: The report shows the National Parks System taking in $133 million in user fees last year (down, incidentally, from $137 million in 1998 and $141 million in 1999). Money was spent accordingly: $36.3 million on "health and safety maintenance," $27.7 million on "collection costs," $12.6 million on "visitor services," $11.5 million on "other" and $3.4 million on "resource protection."

Likewise, the Forest Service, by the end of fiscal year 2000, had collected $88.4 million in user fees, spending $67.5 million of that. More than 80 percent of the $67 million went to "repair and maintenance, interpretation and signing, facility enhancement, fee collection and annual operation categories."

Necessary improvements? Absolutely. But a far cry from "restoring ecosystems" - unless large-scale toilet-seat purchases qualify as such. And probably a far cry from where many weekend hikers believe their money is headed.

. Just as user-fee critics long have predicted, Congress continues to slash federal money for hiking trails, campgrounds, backcountry rangers and other outdoor activities at an even greater rate than new money gained through user fees. National Forests in Washington and Oregon, for example, brought in $6 million in user fees last year. But their overall recreation funding has dropped from $35 million a year in 1990 to $28 million this year.

Wake up and smell the camp coffee, folks: You're not getting better wilderness or better recreation services by paying user fees. You're merely allowing the federal government to shift a larger proportion of the cost of fresh-air sports from a relatively progressive source (income tax) to a regressive source (user fees).

Don't think, incidentally, that this is a special-interest issue that affects only serious backcountry, adrenaline-sport junkies. It's a philosophy that's creeping into all aspects of public life - probably right down your own street at that beachfront lighthouse.

Get ready for the state Legislature to vote on new day-use parking fees at Washington State Parks - one of the last pure, free things about the Evergreen State. Remember that wonderful half-hour you spent in the sun two weeks ago at Saltwater State Park? Be prepared to pay five bucks for it next time.

Park advocates say the fees, in the (voter-approved) tight-budget world of Olympia, are necessary to keep parks from closing. And they'll support them only if the new money supplements, not replaces, existing general-fund cash.

As if. History - not to mention the federal example in our own back yard - suggests otherwise.

Oh well. Times do change. And maybe most of you don't have a problem with this. If that's the case, keep on doing nothing. It's working beautifully.

Ron C. Judd's columns are published in Sunday's Sports section and Thursday's Northwest Weekend outdoors and travel section.