This morning Detroit News published an article on these bills prior to their passage:

“We have not had any general fund support for our parks for almost six years now, and in the meantime the infrastructure continues to deteriorate,” [Senator Patty] Birkholz said. “We’ve barely been able to keep up (with basic maintenance).

“This gives us a way to streamline how we operate our state parks, so that now we can have parks people that were in booths out working in the parks to improve them.”

The state Senate has developed a reasonable compromise on creating a new financing system to help Michigan’s underfunded and deteriorating state parks. The legislation should be approved because it promises to generate more revenue for parks without tricking taxpayers.

Backers of the legislation, led by Republican Sen. Patricia Birkholz of Saugatuck, argue that the combination of a lowered fee and one-stop-shopping aspect of paying while re-registering vehicles will attract more Michiganians and boost revenues for badly needed improvements and repairs to park buildings, roads, water and sewer lines. Seventeen percent of car registration applicants would have to opt in to generate the $11.7 million a year current park fees raise. If 25 percent agreed to the new fee, the parks would get $6 million more a year, and so on.

Michigan’s once-heralded state park system was converted in 2004 to self-financing — supported solely by user fees. This coincided with the state’s long-running recession, and revenue hasn’t kept up with needs.

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Michigan’s still-proud park system is sliding into disrepair, a casualty of state budget cuts, eroding attendance and vanishing funding sources.

Unless reversed, the decline threatens to turn away visitors and close some of the parks. That would endanger not only the state’s quality of life and economic development, but also tourism, one of the state’s leading industries.

Some say that without new funding or higher fees, the problem won’t be fixed soon.

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Five years ago, state park officials in Montana found themselves where Michigan is today: Losing general fund support and taking in inadequate user fees to sustain the state’s park system.

They came up with a novel idea: Do away with windshield stickers and instead charge every motorist $4 for the privilege to visit Montana’s 53 parks. By all accounts, it’s an unqualified success.

“This is a superior system,” said Chas Van Genderen, acting director of Montana state parks.

Some in Michigan are looking to copy that system.

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Five years ago, Montana came up with a new plan to raise money for its state parks and recreation areas.

The Western state dumped its park entrance fees and replaced them with a $4 charge that’s tacked onto the annual cost of vehicle registrations.

It’s been an unmitigated success, raising needed revenue for parks and boosting visits from 1.3 million Montanans in 2002 to 1.9 million last year.

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