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1975-1980
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Visitor Fees in
the National Park System: A Legislative and Administrative History V. CONFLICTING PRESSURES; CONGRESS PUTS THE LID ON 1975-1980 |
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Visitor Transportation System Fees
To relieve automobile congestion and facilitate visitor circulation, the Service employed buses or other visitor transportation systems at certain heavily used parks in the mid-1970s. In January 1977 the Office of Management and Budget requested that the Service charge fees for at least three visitor transportation systems during fiscal year 1978 to assess their possible self-sufficiency.
During the summer of 1977 the Service collected visitor use data on all visitor transportation system (VTS) operations. The resulting report identified two types of VTS. Type I systems were those central to park operations and used by nearly all visitors, such as the Yosemite Valley shuttle. These, it was determined, should be covered by park entrance fees rather than be made subject to separate user charges. Type II systems were used by small portions of visitors for special tours. User fees could appropriately be levied for these, although not necessarily with the goal of recovering all costs. The report concluded that few systems could pay for themselves; substantial fees would cause the public to return to their cars. [18]
As the VTS fee experiment got underway in 1978, enactment of Public Law 95-344 on August 15 of that year supplied legal authority for NPS visitor transportation systems and provided that "All fees directly collected by the National Park Service in the operation of the facilities and services authorized...shall be covered into the Planning, Development, and Operation of Recreation Facilities appropriation account to be subject to appropriation." [19]
For fiscal 1980, OMB directed the Service to levy VTS charges at six more parks. Mount McKinley was among them, and the fee for the long bus trip there was set at $5 per person (less than half of per capita operating costs ). At his March 1979 subcommittee hearing, Senator Bumpers was especially critical of this rate. "That is one that I think is out of line," he said, observing that his family of seven would have to pay $35 to make the trip. [20] In retaliation, a provision banning any VTS fee at Mount McKinley was added to the pending entrance fee freeze legislation and was included in Public Law 96-87 of October 12, 1979.
In March 1980 the Service enunciated a general policy guiding VTS charges throughout the Park System:
Whenever feasible, a reasonable fee will be charged to cover a portion of VTS operating costs. The fee will be based in part upon the cost and in part upon the service provided and its relationship to other park facilities and services.
NEXT> "Single Visits" and Handicapped Permits, 1976-1980
18NPS Policy Group, "Analysis of Fees for Visitor Transportation Systems," February 1978 (copy in WASO-535).
1992 Stat. 478. The account named was that into which the other visitor fee receipts went.
20"Briefing Statement: Visitor Transportation System Fees in Mount McKinley National Park," Mar. 23, 1979, WASO-535; Entrance and User Fees Hearing, pp. 7, 53.
21Memorandum, Acting Director Daniel J. Tobin, Jr., to Director, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, Mar. 28, 1980, WASO-535.
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Last Modified: Tues, Apr 4 2000 07:08:48 am PDT
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