Economic efficiency requires that the additional benefits of state park attendance is equal to the additional costs. User fees can be used to accomplish this (In state parks ...):
The vast majority of states have cut park financing, often significantly, since the economic downturn took full hold in 2008, and some were cutting long before that. Some parks are closing altogether ..
Here in Washington, one of only a handful of states that has not charged entrance fees to state parks, the revenue stream is about to change. Beginning July 1, the parks will no longer receive state money for their operating budgets. Instead, they will rely directly on new entrance fees — $30 for an annual pass, $10 for one day. It is far from clear that the new plan will compensate for the $70 million in state money that parks are losing each year.
The knock on park user fees has always been that they are not equitable, those who can not afford to pay the fees are not able to visit parks.
Yet some officials also worry that rising fees, rising gas prices and a need to “market” parks to people who will spend money will keep those with lower incomes from enjoying public lands.
I'm sympathetic to this argument but equity cuts both ways. The state government subsidy seems to attach overly large social benefits to attracting visitors who can't afford the lower user fees, and it is not clear that taxpayers would choose to pay that subsidy if faced with it in a referendum (especially when state parks are competing with education and health care spending).
Another argument for the subsidy is that state parks generate positive spillovers -- healthier and better (e.g., less likely to commit crimes) citizens. That may be true but those benefits decline with declines in state park attendance.
Finally, are state parks public goods? Most of the visitors reach it by access roads so they are mostly excludable goods.
While I'm happy to hear about user fees, I'm not so sure about this innovation:
One of the most inventive efforts is in Ohio, where the Legislature is set to approve a bill that would allow drilling for oil and gas in the shale beneath some state parks. Lawmakers say parks would directly benefit from revenues. The number of full-time Ohio parks employees has declined by nearly 40 percent over the last decade, and the state says it faces $1 billion in delayed repairs and maintenance.
