The Trump administration is right to propose increased entry fees at certain national parks.
Affecting 17 of the most popular parks, the fees would mean that “During the peak season at each park, the entrance fee would be $70 per private, noncommercial vehicle; $50 per motorcycle; and $30 per person on bike or foot.” These rates are roughly double the current rates.
While the public is outraged, I believe this is the right thing to do.
First off, while the National Park Service has requested a 2018 budget of $2.2 billion, that number represents a $183 million decrease on the 2017 baseline. As such, the additional $70 million that the NPS expects to generate with increased fees will offset, rather than add, to the 2017 budget. Put simply, this doesn’t look like wasteful government profligacy.
Yet seeing as $70 million is only about 3 percent of $2.2 billion, it’s not as if these increased fees will see park visitors paying an undue burden of the NPS budget. Much of the NPS is still subsidized by federal taxpayers, rather than by fees from park users.
That raises a question: If we agree that national parks require investment and maintenance, the money for those improvements has to come from somewhere. Shouldn’t those who enjoy visiting a park now bear a greater burden of sustaining it?
Liberals should support this approach. As the New York Times lamented in 2015, national park visitors are disproportionately older, whiter, and presumably, (based on the use of cars to get to a park and their status as a vacation destination) more wealthy than the rest of the population.
And remember, if folks don’t want to want to pay the increased fees, they can always visit outside of peak times.
Ultimately, it’s unfair to use general tax revenues to pay for the near entirety of the NPS’ upkeep. Instead, asking visitors to chip in more seems both reasonable and fair.
