PORT TOWNSEND — The details must still be worked out as to how fees will be collected if Gov. Chris Gregoire signs legislation into law initiating a $10 one-day parking fee or an annual $30 “Discover Pass” to use state parks across the North Olympic Peninsula and statewide.
The fee would be charged to users of state parks — Fort Worden and Fort Flagler near Port Townsend, Bogachiel near Forks and Sequim Bay on the Peninsula — as well as state Department of Natural Resources and state Fish & Wildlife recreation areas.
Fort Worden State Park — home to businesses, a Peninsula College branch campus and other educational institutions, Port Townsend Marine Science Center and Centrum’s music festivals in and around McCurdy Pavilion — complicates the fee program intended to generate millions of dollars to keep state parks open.
Steve Shively, Fort Worden State Park conference, programs and services manager in his 13th year at the park, said Washington State Parks “on a whole will need to provide direction on pass sales, enforcement and across-the-board avenues for exemptions such as the 24 hours of documented volunteer work.”
Shively said recommendations for park-specific exemptions, if any, are just beginning to be collected.
Last year, 1.24 million entered Fort Worden State Park’s gates, he said.
“The basic assumption is the people who come to the park pay the fee,” state parks spokeswoman Virginia Painter.
“We have a lot of details to work out as to whether certain people coming into the parks have some kind of exemptions.
“We will be having meetings and powwows to see how it works. The bottom line of it is we’ve got to have money to run a park system.”
Painter said Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget includes $20 million for a transition period “until we get the Discover Pass fully launched and going.”
The state parks board ultimately has the say on how the program is put into motion.
The state House voted 55-42 last week to approve Senate Bill 5622, a bipartisan measure to institute the user fee.
As outlined in the bill, 8 percent of the revenues would go to Fish & Wildlife, 8 percent to DNR and 84 percent to Washington State Parks.
Painter said it would not be likely that campers would be exempt if they pay fees for campsites at state parks.
Signage and how vehicles will be monitored for paying the fees also has yet to be determined.
The legislation includes a $99 citation for failure to pay the fee.
Among those exempt would be those who have put in a minimum of 24 hours a year as a park volunteer.
That is no consolation for Nora Porter, a Port Townsend political activist and longtime Friends of Fort Worden volunteer who successfully campaigned to kill the $5 day fee six years ago and more than two years ago was key in helping through legislation to add the “opt-out” $5 donation for state parks when renewing their auto registration tags.
She called the new legislation that passed the House and Senate and expected to be signed by the governor within the next two weeks “discriminatory” because needy families will not be able to afford the fees.
“It’s pretty disheartening,” Porter said. “They didn’t have to do this.
“They don’t know how many people are going to buy a $30 pass.”
Porter said the fee isn’t necessary, pointing to the fact that the opt-out legislation she supported became law and generated $22 million in the last state budget biennium.
“For me, it’s a philosophic issue,” Porter said.
“You’re excluding poor families and others who can’t afford a fee.
“It’s wrong and discriminatory.”
Porter added that state parks such as Fort Worden have a lot to do with economic development and tourism.
“And they’ve put up a real barrier around the state,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard to raise enough money.
“This is a bureaucratic nightmare. The costs are going to be excruciating.”
Porter was part of a citizens group that raised $150,000 in a three-year “buyout contract” to keep tourist magnet Fort Worden State Park fee-free and prosperous.
Retired Rep. Lynn Kessler, the former House majority leader who represented the district that includes the North Olympic Peninsula, also was a vocal critic of legislation to impose a mandatory fee to visit Washington’s 119 state parks.
The bill was introduced in the House by Kessler’s former 24th Legislative District seat mate, Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, who sees the fee schedule as a way to maintain state parks and millions of acres of public lands when the state is wrestling with a projected deficit of more than $5 billion.
“This is about keeping our state parks open for the people of Washington,” said Van De Wege, who represents Jefferson and Clallam counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
“Our state is facing a budget crisis, and we need to fund schools and health care ahead of parks right now.
“But with this bill, we’ve found a way for people to continue to enjoy the outdoor recreational opportunities offered by parks across the state.”
Through this legislation, Van De Wege said, Washington joins 41 other states across the nation that have some type of user-fee system for state parks, including neighboring states Idaho and Oregon.
“The truth is our parks system is losing $60 million of general fund support, and that amount of money can’t be made up by simply raising campsite fees,” he said.
“In fact, 90 percent of state parks visitors are day users, so it makes sense that they should contribute to keeping the parks open.”
Painter said the parks system would have to take a $10 million reduction before the pass even goes into effect, which could create some gaps in services until revenues recover.
She said the $5 opt-out donation program would remain.
The legislation allows for 12 days each year when the public can enter the parks for free. Three of those days are mandated to be on weekends.
About 27 percent of the Washington State Parks operating budget is funded through fees and revenues collected from park visitors.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
