Sounds like Danielle and Lane Medrano need to be heavily fined at a minimum. I'll never understand people who deface nature like this to write their worthless names and a heart or similar idiocy.

YellowPot_97 said:

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What can a person do to affect a change for the better?

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Contact your representatives and demand that they stop trying to pilfer the dedicated funds from sporting goods taxes that are supposed to be going back to parks

RAISE PARK ENTRY FEES

THIS IS A SIMPLE ECONOMICS ISSUE

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Agmechanic said:

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RAISE PARK ENTRY FEES

THIS IS A SIMPLE ECONOMICS ISSUE

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

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But do we really want enjoyment of our parks to be an economic issue?

Not to get all political, but do we really want to price out some of our fellow Texans so they can't enjoy the state parks? What if it's you that's being priced out?

People are already priced out of the parks, if the entry fee is the straw that broke the camel's back. You have to have a car, gas money, food money. If the park is far from home, you have to have a motel.

You think state parks are bad, how about National Parks and Wildernesses? We spend millions on wilderness areas that cost thousands and thousands of dollars to travel to. They are only usable by the higher end of people as far as fitness and time off from work.

As great as it is for everyone to get into the outdoors, we can't let everyone into the parks and have the parks survive. Use has to be rationed, somehow.

Price is the easiest and fairest way to do so.

Kick the Californians out. Next question?

I'm very pro-free market, but when it comes to parks land held in trust by the government for use by the public, it should be cheap to access. The method for limiting destruction and preserving the natural character of the parks should be a restriction on the number of daily visitors and their allowed behavior. We can debate this should be based on reservations, a lottery or first come/first serve. Obviously some parks have exceeded their natural carrying capacity and behavior is poorly enforced (and isn't being taught at home).

Surely a middle ground can be found.
No one wants our parks to be "too expensive", but if just the top 10 most visited State Parks raised their admission fee by $1 per vehicle there would be an additional $3,132,269 flowing into the system.
People tend to abuse things that are free or cheap and value things that cost them money.

Looks like there may be bi-partisan support in Texas Leg to ask the voters to approve amendment to make to force the legislature to send the full sporting goods sales tax funds to TPWD and TSHA.


Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/30/state-push-to-fully-fund-Texas-state-parks-and-historic-sites/

Quote:

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State lawmakers aim to lock in funding for Texas parks, historic sites

In 1993, the Legislature passed a law that said state parks and historic sites could receive all of the money generated by a tax on the sale of sporting goods. Since then, state lawmakers have given the parks department only about 40 percent of those collections.

<snip>

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and Rep John P. Cyrier, R-Lockhart, have filed legislation that would ensure that the state parks department always gets the maximum amount of money it is authorized to receive from a tax on the sale of sporting goods to maintain parks and build new ones but only if voters approve it.

In 1993, state lawmakers passed legislation allowing up to 94 percent of the Sporting Goods Sales Tax to go to parks, with the other 6 percent earmarked for the Texas Historical Commission, which maintains the state's 22 historic sites. But over the next two decades, they allocated just 40 percent of the tax to the parks system.

Kolkhorst and Cyrier's legislation aims to amend the Texas Constitution to ensure that the state parks department and historical commission always receive the entirety of sporting goods tax collections. If passed by the Legislature joint resolutions require approval from two-thirds of both the House and Senate the proposed amendment would be placed on the November general election ballot.

<snip>

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