Preserving Texas In the News

By R.A. DYER STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU

AUSTIN - The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department overstated its visitation data and potentially lost $16 million in entrance fees over the last two years, according to a new report from the state auditor's office.

The report -- which comes against the backdrop of a continued and heated debate in the Texas Legislature over parks funding -- also cites the department for "significant financial control weaknesses" and says the agency should improve the management of individual state parks. "These control weaknesses -- such as a lack of adequate supervisory reviews, audit trails and segregation of duties -- have made assets managed by the Department vulnerable to theft, fraud and abuse," the office noted in its 71-page report, which was released Monday.

A top official with the parks department said the agency will begin addressing the concerns, but also disputed some findings. "People who visit our state parks know that our employees continue to do an exemplary job -- they are creative and committed to doing their best with the resources available," said Robert L. Cook, the agency's executive director.

The 600,000-acre state parks system has contended with layoffs, deteriorating equipment and park closures, largely the result of budget shortfalls. Parks advocates note that agency funding has remained flat over the last several years, even as the population has increased greatly. Most of the revenue from the state tax on sporting goods, which the Texas Legislature allocated to parks in 1993, has been diverted by lawmakers to other purposes.

But the report from the state auditor's office suggests that the Parks and Wildlife Department may have lost some potential entrance fee revenue because of inadequate financial controls. It said the agency should do a better job of calculating park visitation, improve park management and make its processes for estimating costs more consistent.

"Auditors visited five state parks and one historic site and verified that repairs were needed, but we could not verify the accuracy of the department's cost estimates for those repairs," the report states. Cook took exception to the suggestion that the agency lost millions of dollars in entrance fees. He noted that visitation estimates dropped from more than 20 million in 2003 to less than 10 million in 2006, and at the same time receipts increased from $22.4 million to $33.1 million. "While there is a relationship between visitation estimates and revenue collected, there are many variables that come into play -- these variables include unpaid visits that take place after hours or in places we are not currently staffed to collect fees," he said in a prepared response to the report. "We believe that improving documentation of state park visitation will demonstrate that we did not 'lose' $16 million in potential entrance fees."

Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, said the findings should not deter lawmakers from providing full funding for parks. His group and other parks advocates have called for reallocating all money from the sporting goods tax to Texas parks. That would lead to about a $90 million annual increase. But he noted House budget writers have included only about a quarter of that amount in the current version of spending legislation. Although the process is still in an early phase, he said the inclusion of only about $23 million in new money could portend a bad legislative session for Texas parks. "The report should be taken seriously, but it should not stand in the way of full funding for the agency and for our parks," he said.

State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, a Kerrville Republican pushing much of that legislation, said he has long supported more management controls for the agency. He said his House Bill 12, which is pending in committee, addresses many of the concerns raised in the audit report. He also said some problems cited by auditors are caused by a consistent lack of funding for the agency. "They have cut back operations hours, they have been suffering," he said.

IN THE KNOW More park woes In a report issued Monday, the State Auditor's Office cites several findings about the operations of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: The department lacks adequate controls to ensure that park visitation data and revenue reporting for individual state parks are accurate There are significant deficiencies in the department's budgeting process that hinder its ability to ensure that resources are allocated in a reasonable manner Financial control weaknesses have led the department to underestimate its revenue and to produce inaccurate financial reports The department "does not have an effective marketing strategy and tools to promote visitation." R.A. Dyer, 512-476-4294 rdyer@star-telegram.com