Texas Parks Are Broke. But Good News, Voters Can Rescue Them.

Money intended for state parks and historic sites should actually be spent on state parks and historic sites, right?
It took lawmakers a little more than a quarter century to reach that conclusion. Since 1993, sales tax collected from the purchase of sporting goods and outdoor gear was supposed to fund Texas’ system of much-loved yet perpetually cash-strapped state parks and historic sites. Buy a kayak in Texas? In theory, you’re a park benefactor. Same for the purchase of baseball gloves and fishing poles, exercise bikes and the like.

But legislators couldn’t resist withholding the revenue from state parks in order to shore up the state’s general budget. From 1993 to 2015, in fact, just 40 percent of an estimated $2.5 billion in sporting goods sales tax ever made its way to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to both operate state parks and provide grants for local and regional parks.
story:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/texas-parks-are-broke-but-good-news-voters-can-rescue-them/

We really should have the most incredible parks system in the union. I found this in another article: Senate Bill 26 and Senate Joint Resolution 24.

Thanks for posting. I'll remember in November.

All politicians simply suck.

Same way the Texas Education system was to be saved with the Texas Lottery. My azzz

That was always a myth. There was never any legislation that the lottery proceeds would be used for education.

After two decades of looting state park funding, lawmakers appropriated nearly $350 million this session, greenlit development of a new state park and gave voters a chance to maintain a long-term source.

Texas state parks have been a convenient piggy bank for the Legislature whenever money was short elsewhere, but this session they got their due. Lawmakers put more funding than ever into state parks, and additionally are giving voters a chance to approve a constitutional amendment this November to ensure a long-term source.

https://www.texasobserver.org/all-i...ies-up-cash-for-underfunded-texas-parks/

We really should have the most incredible parks system in the union. I found this in another article: Senate Bill 26 and Senate Joint Resolution 24.

Thanks for posting. I'll remember in November.

All politicians simply suck.

Save the date. November 5.
That is when Texas voters will go to the polls with a chance to vote on a state constitutional amendment that finally sends all the revenue from the state’s sporting goods sales tax where it belongs — state parks and historical sites.

Link

We really should have the most incredible parks system in the union. I found this in another article: Senate Bill 26 and Senate Joint Resolution 24.

Thanks for posting. I'll remember in November.