By R.A. DYER
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN -- Money from the proposed sale of state parkland at Eagle
Mountain Lake would not go to acquire a regional park near the
Metroplex but would instead be directed to park maintenance under key
legislation pending in the Texas House that at this point includes no
new funds for parks.
If given the final OK, the House
appropriations bill would contradict pledges made by state lawmakers to
increase funding for parks and by Gov. Rick Perry to establish a major
state park in North Texas.
But state Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman
of the House Appropriations Committee, indicated that he expects that
the revenue from the state sporting-goods tax -- expected to be about
$110 million annually for the upcoming two-year budget cycle -- will
ultimately be assigned to the parks, except for $17 million that would
be dedicated each year for beach erosion and some historical sites.
"People want to buy more parks, but we need to make sure we can support what we already have," said Chisum, R-Pampa.
On
Sept. 13, during the heat of his gubernatorial campaign, Perry
announced a deal to sell the 400 acres of park property on Eagle
Mountain Lake to the Tarrant Regional Water District and use the
resulting revenue to purchase parkland elsewhere in the region.
"We
can proudly say that the 25-year wait to turn Eagle Mountain Lake into
a park will soon be over," Perry said during a news conference in Fort
Worth at the time. "The bottom line is this: This transaction will help
us create two parks where currently there are none."
Perry's office could not be reached late Monday.
Completing the deal
The water district recently announced that it had raised the $9.6 million needed to complete the deal.
But
Chisum, who manages the appropriations process in the Texas House, said
Monday that the governor "commits us to a lot of things without asking."
Chisum
did not discount the possibility that lawmakers could adjust their
spending plans before the 80th Texas Legislature adjourns, on May 28.
The sale of the parkland remains pending.
The
property in northwest Tarrant County has remained part of the parks
department inventory for more than two decades but has never been
opened to the public.
During an interview Monday with the Star-Telegram,
Chisum said about $17 million collected through the state sales tax on
sporting goods will likely go to the Texas Historical Commission and to
a separate program to fight coastal erosion.
Chisum said that
under current plans, the historical commission would get about $7
million annually to pay for the upkeep of more than 20 properties that
he said would be transferred from the parks department. Another $10
million annually would go to fight beach erosion, he said.
He
said both uses of the sales-tax money relate to public space and so
comport generally with pledges that the sporting-goods tax should go to
improve parks.
Taking heat
Both proposals have drawn fire from parks advocates.
"We can and must do better than this," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas.
"The Legislature is willfully letting our state parks go without even the minimal support needed to maintain them."
He
said the budget plan "violates an agreement brokered by the governor
with the Fort Worth community to use the funds from the sale of Eagle
Mountain Lake to purchase a new, larger state park. ... The D/FW area
is already sorely underserved when it comes to state parks, and we're
counting on the Legislature to include funding to acquire new parkland."
Beth
McDonald, director of Texans for State Parks, said the state should not
go forward with the proposed transfer of more than 20 properties from
the parks department to the Texas Historical Commission. She said the
historical commission lacks the expertise and infrastructure to care
for the property.
The transfer is being pushed by House Speaker
Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Texas Historical Commission Chairman John
Nau, who has been a major political contributor to the speaker.
Although
supporters of the transfer cannot point to any study that suggests it
would save money, Craddick has said it makes sense because the sites to
be transferred are historical.
"I support fixing the parks system, and I support maintaining and repairing the historical sites," Craddick said.
Texas
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has called for the transfer of some
money from the sporting-goods tax for programs in his agency to fight
coastal erosion.
He has said that he supports full funding for parks and that he wants only "leftover" money.
"It
makes sense that the money to help protect beaches comes from the same
source as money to fund parks," Patterson said in January. He has also
said that Texas has some of the country's worst coastal erosion but
that the Legislature in 2005 halved funding for programs to fight the
problem.
Looking ahead
The
Texas House is expected to consider the overall appropriations bill
Thursday. Chisum said that it does not include any additional money for
parks and that lawmakers would add any such money to the spending plan
when House and Senate lawmakers meet in a conference committee to hash
out the final details.
Chisum said lawmakers could reconsider the Eagle Mountain Lake money then.
In
1993, the Legislature earmarked for parks the money from the state
sales tax on sporting goods, but in recent years it has rerouted most
of it.
In the meantime, Texas parks have fallen on hard times. A Star-Telegram investigation
last year found that financial neglect by the Legislature has left the
600,000-acre system with a fleet of aging and sometimes inoperable
vehicles, shuttered facilities, nonworking water and wastewater systems
and a long and expensive repair backlog.
A report released last
week by the state auditor's office has also raised questions about the
agency's management of individual parks and said it may have overstated
visitation data.
The report was requested last year by state Sen.
Steve Ogden, R-Bryan and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and
his then-counterpart in the Texas House, state Rep. Jim Pitts,
R-Waxahachie, according to e-mail correspondence.
Joe Fitzsimons,
chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife board, said some of the
problems identified in the audit are the result of limited resources.
He
said the agency may not have collected as much revenue as it could have
because it lacks the staff to operate guard booths after hours.
Even so, revenue has increased dramatically in recent years, he said.
