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posted by mrpg on Monday October 30 2017, @10:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the color-me-green-as-a-bill dept.

Cost to Enter National Parks Will More Than Double, As Land Around Them Gets Leased for Oil and Gas

The current Republican president and his Secretary of the Interior have a different view of things. They are cutting the budget of the National Park Service and significantly increasing the fees to get in.

"The infrastructure of our national parks is aging and in need of renovation and restoration," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. "Targeted fee increases at some of our most-visited parks will help ensure that they are protected and preserved in perpetuity and that visitors enjoy a world-class experience that mirrors the amazing destinations they are visiting."

But then according to AP,
"While the national parks counted 292 million visitors in 2014, those visitors tend to be older and whiter than the U.S. population overall." Sounds like people who voted for the president, and if you are over 62 it's free (albeit with a lifetime pass that just increased in price) so the boomer base is protected.

But wait, there's more; in accordance with the President's executive order "promoting energy independence and economic growth, "they have started leasing land around National Parks (they are not allowed to in the parks) to today's Robber Barons for oil and gas development.

Oh well. National Monuments are better anyway.

U.S. National Park Service Seeks Comments on Proposed Fee Increases

The National Park Service issued a press release about its proposal to raise fees at its most popular parks:

News Release Date: October 24, 2017

Contact:NPS Office of Communications, 202-208-6843

Public invited to provide comments on proposed peak season fee increases at 17 highly visited parks

[...] The proposed new fee structure would be implemented at Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Denali, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Olympic, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion National Parks with peak season starting on May 1, 2018; in Acadia, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, and Shenandoah National Parks with peak season starting on June 1, 2018; and in Joshua Tree National Park as soon as practicable in 2018.

A public comment period on the peak-season entrance fee proposal will be open from October 24, 2017 to November 23, 2017, on the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website https://parkplanning.nps.gov/proposedpeakseasonfeerates. Written comments can be sent to 1849 C Street, NW, Mail Stop: 2346 Washington, DC 20240.

If implemented, estimates suggest that the peak-season price structure could increase national park revenue by $70 million per year. That is a 34 percent increase over the $200 million collected in Fiscal Year 2016. Under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, 80% of an entrance fee remains in the park where it is collected. The other 20% is spent on projects in other national parks.

During the peak season at each park, the entrance fee would be $70 per private, non-commercial vehicle, $50 per motorcycle, and $30 per person on bike or foot. A park-specific annual pass for any of the 17 parks would be available for $75.

The New York Post called some of the proposed increases "steep":

The National Park Service is considering a steep increase in entrance fees at 17 of its most popular parks, mostly in the West, to address a backlog of maintenance and infrastructure projects.

Visitors to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion and other national parks would be charged $70 per vehicle, up from the fee of $30 for a weekly pass. At others, the hike is nearly triple, from $25 to $70.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Monday October 30 2017, @03:11PM (3 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday October 30 2017, @03:11PM (#589463) Journal

    You and the gp are both wrong.

    While there is certainly payroll padding in private corporations, there are also large scale layoffs routinely and these are widely reported, loudly bemoaned, and the corporations involved loudly vilified (probably you participate in the latter).

    And when that happens it often takes large segments of upper and middle management with it. But its routine, and expected. Why: Because corporations sooner or later have to make money, cover costs, produce something, sell something that people will buy. If governments could pad their bottom line by just holding a board meeting and decreeing that you the citizen owed them more money it would be different, and they could keep all the long since unproductive divisions producing buggy whips that nobody buys for decades.

    Search Google news for the single word "layoff" just to refresh your memory. Check the leftist [huffingtonpost.com] press for all the whinging and gnashing of teeth each time it happens.

    How two bitter posters can, in adjacent posts, assert that layoffs never happen in private corporations is beyond me.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @03:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @03:35PM (#589474)

    I think you'll find you are all correct. Layoffs do happen in the private sector, much more often than in public sector.
    But with all the bickering about pricing and quality I hear about the US telco's it's very clear they do not have to fear any kind of fair competition. Next to this, when a new competitor does come around, the bigger companies can usually squash them by undercutting their prices in the relevant regions, putting up political roadblocks, suing, or just buying them out. Once a corporation gets large enough, it can drag a horde of bureaucrats along for a very long time without any big problems.

    The source of the problem has been identified in gp post though. For some reason, the people not doing the actual work think they should earn more; and if they can direct more people they think they are more powerful or better than their peers. Remove/reverse those incentives and it'll be very different. (It may go bad in a different direction, but I can't imagine it yet)

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 30 2017, @05:57PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 30 2017, @05:57PM (#589558) Journal

    Why: Because corporations sooner or later have to make money, cover costs, produce something, sell something that people will buy. If governments could pad their bottom line by just holding a board meeting and decreeing that you the citizen owed them more money it would be different, and they could keep all the long since unproductive divisions producing buggy whips that nobody buys for decades.

    That's what classic economic and business theory would predict, but it largely doesn't happen that way. It's very easy to corrupt government to create the market distortions you need to make sure that doesn't happen.

    In the meantime, who cares? As long as the upper management can lay-off the workforce or loot the company pension fund long enough to get themselves a fat payday, what does it matter what happens to any of the employees or customers?

    The only situation in which a company can't exploit one of those tactics is really only one like you cited, the buggy whip manufacturer. The market has to so completely evaporate thanks to large, long term changes, that the gaps can't be papered over any more. But the timeline of such a market collapse is usually longer than living memory can recall.

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  • (Score: 2) by jelizondo on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:53AM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:53AM (#589797) Journal

    Search 'too big to fail' and come back and tell me why taxpayers should give money to so-well-run private enterprises.

    As additional homework, seach for 'Jack Welch' and the current status of GE; after years of implementing firing 10% of the workforce, they are running around selling parts of a once proud American company.

    Lack of efficiency, bureaucracy and ideology are human traits. You don't stop being human because you run a government agency or a private company, one is still prone to all human failures.