Parks tax considered to offset cutbacks

Restrooms at 17 of Colorado Springs's 48 parks are closed this year, and grass won't be watered much.

El Paso County has cut hours at its nature centers almost in half. Last year, it raised the idea of selling parks.

When budgets get tight, parks are in the cross hairs because they're seen as less essential than putting out fires and catching criminals.

Parks, though, are considered crucial to quality of life - the reason the Trails and Open Space Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group, has convened a committee to study new ways to fund city and county parks.

"Parks are pretty much way down on the funding list," said Trails and Open Space Coalition chief Dan Cleveland. The county Parks Department has seen tax support plunge from $2.4 million in 2003 to $194,863 this year, and lottery money previously used to build and improve parks is used to maintain them. As a result, restrooms are closed from November through March, outdoor sports lighting has been shut off and full-time staff cut by about a third, said public services director Tim Wolken.

The city's tax supported parks budget has dropped by 21 percent to $15.6 million this year from $19.8 million in 2007, said parks director Paul Butcher.

Cleveland said the committee of about a dozen residents formed last fall after Commissioner Wayne Williams said county parks might be sold to offset revenue shortfalls. The proposal didn't go anywhere, but it galvanized support for parks, he said.

"It got a lot of people's attention and catalyzed people into thinking, ‘Wow. We do have a serious problem,'" he said.

The committee has heard presentations by the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, a multi-jurisdictional agency that levies a 1 percent sales tax for transportation and transit projects. The agency and the tax were approved by voters in 2005.

A similar approach might be used to establish a parks district, Cleveland said.

A district poses complicated questions, he said, such as how park ownership would be handled and whether employees would work for the district or the city and county.

Cleveland said it could take up to three years to put together a proposal. If a new tax is proposed, it would have to be submitted to voters for approval.

"Parks represent one of the few places people can go and enjoy active recreation, passive recreation, trails experiences," said Butcher. "These are not things provided in the private sector."

He said the city manages or owns 16,000 acres ranging from "fishing holes to open space." The county owns 7,110 park acres.
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