Vehicle license tax could fund state parks

As California’s state parks battle through budget shortfalls by reducing park hours and cutting back on staff, a voter initiative is in the works to provide a stable source of income for the parks.
The California State Parks Foundation has launched a campaign to add a new $18 fee to every vehicle registration in California.
The tax would raise an estimated $500 million annually, based on 28 million vehicle registrations each year. Of that, 85 percent would fund the parks and the other 15 percent would go to other state wildlife and ocean protection agencies.
The money collected would be kept in a separate account, called the State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund.
The tax carries a perk.
All California vehicles that pay a vehicle license fee would have free admission, free parking and free access to all of California’s 279 state parks, including Big Basin State Park in Boulder Creek and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton.
The effort to find money to keep parks open has emerged as the system suffers through California’s budget crisis.
In August, park leaders raised fees to enter parks and to camp after California lawmakers cut more than $14 million of the park system’s funding to help balance the state’s ailing budget. The park system operated on a $143 million budget last year.
The $18 vehicle license fee would be only the latest in a series of tax burdens on California drivers.
In May, the vehicle registration fee bumped up from 0.65 percent to 1.15 percent of the purchase price of the vehicle. The temporary increase was meant to help balance the state budget and could remain in effect until 2013.
There is no guarantee yet that the vehicle tax initiative will make it on to the ballot for the targeted November 2010 election.
To become a ballot measure, the petition must collect signatures from 433,971 registered voters in California.
Volunteers from the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, the Mountain Parks Foundation and the Sierra Club have begun to make their way through Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley, collecting signatures to put the initiative on the state ballot.
“Last weekend, we trained 76 volunteers to go out,” said Bonnie Hawley, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks director. “That’s a huge response early on. And people seem really eager to sign the petition when (the volunteers) get out.”
At a glance
• To learn more about the state parks funding initiative: www.calparks.org/takeaction.