Here's one state senator's plan to save the state parks

GUNTERSVILLE, ALa. — When the news broke that 15 state parks may close this summer, State Senator Clay Scofield (R-Arab) immediately jumped into action.

In 2012 Alabama voters passed a constitutional amendment appropriating $15 million a year over the next 20 years to the Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust from the oil and gas trust fund. Run under the same state agency as state parks, Forever Wild shares many of the same mandates and goals.

Because all of the funds for Forever Wild are constitutionally mandated, they will not be touched by any budget cuts.

“I believe Alabamians will support my request to Forever Wild to help us ensure Alabama’s parks stay open by using their funds to purchase the state parks lands that align with Forever Wild’s mission,” Sen. Scofield told Yellowhammer.

“This is something I’ve been working on for over two years,” Sen. Scofield said, “It’s something we should have done regardless of the crisis we’re in now.”

Before we go any further, here are the numbers under consideration:

The state parks director told reporters earlier this week that there was $11.4 million being transferred from the ADCNR budget, and the majority of that money would have to come from state parks. A look at the proposed budget and a little bit of math calls both those claims into question.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) was funded at $155,189,502 in FY2015, and the proposed bare-bones budget has cut that by $9 million to $146,188,947, all from earmarked funds. The state parks, which are under the ADCNR, are largely funded through a “revolving fund,” from the revenues at the state parks, which is estimated to be at $36,523,922 for the next year. State parks receive an additional $3 million from a tobacco settlement. These tobacco funds are the only part of the parks’ budget that can be moved somewhere else, and even that would require legislative action.

Last year the state parks revolving fund was at $38,101,288, a difference of only $1.58 million.

Because this fund is created from money visitors spend at the parks themselves, this difference is within the margin of error for a slight decrease in visitors due to bad weather.

Sen. Scofield says it just makes good fiscal and policy sense for the Forever Wild Land Trust to come to the table and help make up this difference by purchasing, and taking over the management of, a small amount of state parks land.

Governor Bentley is scheduled to give a speech in support of his proposed tax hike at Lake Guntersville State Park Monday morning. The ADCNR’s “emergency protocol” will begin closing state parks on May 1st unless something is done to resolve the discrepancy.