Facts About Possible Virginia State Park System Budget Cuts As Of July 15, 2009

As has been frequently reported by the media, the Commonwealth has not been hitting the revenue projections on which its budget is based and cuts will be needed to avoid violating a constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget.

Thus, it seems reasonable for the Governor to ask all state agencies to develop plans to help this fiscal imbalance and, according to the media, the agencies are dutifully preparing cut scenarios of 5%, 10%, and 15%.

But, it does not seem reasonable to apply an across the board cut to each division within each agency. Some divisions actually stimulate the state and local economies. Thus, cutting their budgets will actually worsen the overall economic picture.

For example, in Fiscal Year 2009 the Virginia State Park System received about $17.6 million in appropriations from the General Fund. In Calendar Year 2008, the overall state and local economic impact generated by the state parks, based on conservative estimates, totaled about $170 million. Simply put, the Commonwealth invested less than $18 million in the state park system and got an economic return of $170 million.

It's important to note that the park system has already been cut more than $2.1 million in Fiscal Year 2008. While the General Assembly restored $500,000 for Fiscal Year 2009, numerous unfilled positions have been left vacant as part of the overall cut.

There's simply no meat left on the skeleton for further cuts. Thus, further cuts will undoubtedly result in one or more of the following adverse actions either within selected parks or across the system, depending on the amount of the cuts:

• reduced hours of operation;
• closed facilities;
• closed parks;
• laid-off staff;
• reduced programs;
• and/or others.

A given here is that any of these actions, if taken, will have the end result, in some way, shape, form, or fashion, of degrading the system's attractiveness to those who spend their recreation and tourism dollars in and around the wholesome, family-oriented activities and opportunities our state parks are famous for providing. This, in turn, will result in reduced recreation and tourism dollars being spent, thus adversely affecting the state and local economies.

The bottom line is that smart leadership would not cut additional funding from an already severely under-funded, but award winning and revenue producing state park system. Rather, smart leadership would recognize that cutting the park system's budget would be akin to adopting an anti-stimulus program which would simply make things worse.

It's important to note that, even given the significant budget cuts absorbed in prior years, Virginia's State Park System is experiencing a very strong revenue producing year. Recent data show that visitation numbers are nearing a record high and that both cabin and camping revenues are already at all-time highs.

In fact, park system staff has reported that cabins and campsites for both Memorial Day and Independence Day sold out earlier this year than ever before. They also report that overall reservations are 5% higher this year over the first six months of last year.

Even more impressive is that the Reservation Center answered 9% more calls this year than last year and booked 14% more reservations over a comparable time frame. And, this was done with fewer staff this year than last year as a result of prior budget cuts.

As even more evidence of the park system's potential for revenue production, consider that the park system's website had a record 39,680 single day of page views on June 29 and that same day also had a record number of Flickr views.

Not only does the data show that the park system has captured the public's interest as desirable and affordable sites to visit, the data also show that those who visit react very positively. The park system provides visitors with a "Your Comments Count" survey that can be responded to anonymously. These survey responses are accumulated and analyzed annually by Radford University.

It's important to note that Radford analyzed 600 more survey responses in 2008 than in 2007. Here are some of Radford's results: 97.9% of respondents said "they would recommend the park to a friend"; the number of respondents saying they "would not recommend the park to a friend" decreased from 2.8% in 2006 to 2.1% in 2008; and, "unacceptable" ratings decreased from 1% in 2007 to .6 % in 2008.

It would certainly appear that Virginia's state parks have become the popular alternative for recreation and tourism spending by visitors during these difficult economic times.

Why would anyone want to adversely impact this success story with further budget cuts? We don't know the answer to that question but, obviously, significant cuts have been imposed in prior years despite the proven revenue raising potential of the park system.

Hopefully, we can help our leaders see the logic of increasing rather than decreasing the park system's annual appropriation from the General Fund. What's wrong with receiving a three digit positive return on investment during an economic downturn?