WASHINGTON -- Utah's national parks -- which for years delayed repairs for lack of cash -- probably never dreamed they would face an unusual new problem: They may be attracting too much money.
Congressional auditors say popular Utah parks and monuments -- such as Zion, Timpanogos Cave, Arches and Bryce Canyon -- may raise more than they need via higher entrance fees that Congress approved two years ago to help fund delayed maintenance projects.The auditors suggest lawmakers may want to rethink the experimental program that permits each park to keep 80 percent of the money it collects. They say that allows those with many visitors to roll in cash, while less popular parks with bigger needs languish.
The General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress, raised the concern in a review of the new experimental fee program, which replaces an old system where all entrance fee revenues were given to the general treasury.
The study was requested by Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., who chair subcommittees on national parks.
The GAO said an example of a park now raising more than it likely needs is Utah's Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
Auditors said it "is a smaller park and does not have a backlog of repair and maintenance needs. According to managers, appropriated funds (from Congress) have been sufficient to keep up with the monument's repairs and maintenance."
But the experimental fee program allowed it to raise and keep an extra $318,000 in fiscal 1998 (which ended in October). That's about 47 percent of the $675,000 regular operating fund given to it by Congress.
So, instead of using the windfall for repairs and maintenance, auditors said, Timpanogos plans to use the extra money "to enhance visitor services, such as by providing more cave tours."
Meanwhile, the GAO added, "Other sites, including those that are not in the demonstration program and those that do not generate high fee revenues, may not be able to address some high-priority needs."
Auditors said another example of a park raising almost more than it can use through the new program is Zion National Park.
They said officials there said Zion "expected to receive so much new fee revenue in fiscal year 1998 -- about $4.5 million, a doubling of its operating budget -- that they might have difficulty preparing and implementing enough projects to use the available funds if a major new $20 million alternative transportation system was not begun."
They added, "Without this major project (to offer shuttles from outside parking lots to reduce traffic in the park), they probably would not be able to spend all of the money available to them in ways that were consistent with the demonstration program's objectives."
Among other parks in Utah with big windfalls from the fee program are Arches -- where new fees brought in 1.6 times as much as its regular operating budget -- and Bryce Canyon, where fees essentially doubled its regular operating budget.
Also, Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah had fees that brought in the equivalent of 30 percent of its regular operating budget.
The GAO said fees at such popular parks -- as opposed to less popular ones, or at parks not among the 100 selected for the experimental fee program -- are creating a split between park system "haves" and have nots."
"Of the 100 fee-collecting sites, the top 44 units in terms of revenues are expected to retain $93 million or 68 percent of the total, while the remaining collecting sites are expected to retain $13 million, or 10 percent of the total, leaving $30 million, or 22 percent of the total, for 260 nonparticipating sites," it said.
It suggested that Congress may want to rethink how much it allows each park to retain or to allow some that have few needs to give more than the required 20 percent of local collections to system-wide funds.
However, it cautioned that surveys of visitors found they support higher fees mostly because money collected is kept by parks they visited. And the GAO said parks need an incentive to collect funds, and keeping a high percentage of receipts locally helps that.
A spokesman for Hansen, state director Steve Petersen, said Hansen has no comment on the report for now. "He wants to wait until he can see the report and digest it and talk to our park managers out here about their needs and their views."
Among other findings in the report, the GAO said the higher fees do not appear to decrease the number of visitors at parks. Also, it said parks could do more to make fees more fair, such as charging different fees for long and short visits, or during peak and non-peak times.
Also, it said various agencies -- such as the Park Service, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management -- could better coordinate fee collection. It said one good example is how the Park Service, Forest Service and state work together to collect fees in American Fork Canyon.
"Timpanogos Cave is surrounded by the Uinta National Forest, and common road access enabled the agencies to charge one fee for entrance," auditors said.
In contrast, Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest in Washington state "share a common border, yet backcountry visitors . . . are required to pay multiple fees (to each), which has led to confusion."