Peninsula Daily News and The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has no plans to ask for authority to fund Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascade national parks with state funds, despite a federal offer.
The Obama administration said Thursday it will allow states to use their own money to reopen some national parks that have been closed because of the partial federal shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Olympic National Park closed along with others nationwide.
Governors in at least four states have asked for authority to reopen national parks within their borders because of the economic impacts caused by the park closures.
Not Washington
Washington’s governor is not among them.
“Most people are aware that state funding is pretty limited right now,” said Inslee’s spokeswoman, Jamie Smith.
“At this point, we don’t have the resources to do that,” Smith said Thursday.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the government will consider offers to pay for park operations but will not surrender control of national parks or monuments to the states.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said his state would accept the federal offer to reopen Utah’s five national parks.
Utah would have to use its own money to staff the parks, and it will cost $50,000 a day to operate just one of them, Zion National Park, said Herbert’s deputy chief of staff, Ally Isom.
It was not clear whether the federal government would reimburse Utah later. The Utah Legislature would have to convene in special session to appropriate the money, Isom said.
Governors of South Dakota, Arizona and Colorado have made similar requests to reopen some or all of their parks. It was not clear Thursday whether they would accept Jewell’s offer.
Not Wyoming
In Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead’s office said the state would not pay to reopen two heavily visited national parks or Devil’s Tower National Monument.
“Wyoming cannot bail out the federal government, and we cannot use state money to do the work of the federal government,” Mead spokesman Renny MacKay said Thursday
Meanwhile, the Park Service said it is reopening to tourists a highway pullout area that can be used to view and photograph Mount Rushmore from a distance following complaints that the agency was intentionally blocking viewing areas.
Blake Androff, a spokesman for Jewell, said the Interior Department will consider agreements with governors who “indicate an interest and ability to fully fund National Park Service personnel to reopen national parks in their states.”
The Park Service said it is losing $450,000 per day in revenue from entrance fees and other in-park expenditures, such as campground fees and boat rentals.
