State Parks
The Need: Nevada citizens all across the state enjoy our state’s parks for recreation and to enjoy our state’s spectacular natural environment. The state has made significant investments in our parks and action is needed to ensure that we safeguard this investment and continue to have recreation options for Nevadans in these troubled times.
2011 Legislative Session Recap: NCL knows how important it is that Nevadans continue to have access to our state parks. After the budget fights in the 2009 session, in which several state parks were put on the chopping block, we decided to get proactive in finding a long term funding solution that would pull state parks out of the general fund budget. Just as we figured, at the beginning of the 2011 legislative session, there was a significant fear that Nevada State Parks would be mothballed, and that the millions of dollars in infrastructure would be lost to vandalism and decay. SB 326, sponsored by Senator John Lee (Las Vegas), would have established dedicated, sustainable funding for Nevada parks through a fee collected at the DMV at the time of vehicle registrations and would have allowed residents who pay the fee to have free day-use access to all state parks.
Unfortunately, due to the budget climate, SB 326 did not move out of committee this session. However, our state parks were saved from being closed down, although their budgets were cut significantly. The parks will remain open for the next two years, although needed maintenance will likely not be done. We are hopeful that the economy continues to improve and that we can reverse some of these cuts next session while continuing the discussion around a sustainable funding mechanism.
