To: ; ; ;

Subject: Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force Letter

Dear Co-Chairs Chamberlain and Walker – cc to RCO Staff and please share with full Task Force:

I would like to take a moment to express my appreciation for the time you and other Task Force members are taking to shine a more prominent spotlight that outdoor recreation plays in bolstering our state economy, enhancing our quality of life, and keeping us healthy and active. As you and the Task Force, through the work of several subcommittees, start moving toward draft recommendations, we would like to reiterate and reinforce a number of key recommendations on behalf of our local parks agency and the hundreds across the state that work with the Washington Recreation & Park Association:

  • Protect what you have: As you think about how to sustainably fund State Parks and the whole array of local, state, and private recreation lands, start by protecting what you have! Please give the Legislature the strongest possible recommendation about not raiding or diverting dedicated accounts – such as the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, Boating Facilities Program, Non-Highway Off-Road Vehicle Account, and others – that provide critical infrastructure grant funding for parks and resource agencies.
  • Step up state efforts to promote outdoor recreation as a part of the state’s tourism and marketing efforts: We suggest there be a significantly enhanced state role in promoting and marketing outdoor recreation – perhaps even by establishing an “Office of Outdoor Recreation” as other states have done. We put on regional and national tournaments, operate and maintain facilities that are destination points for visitors, and bring tourists into the state. Washington should be eager to recognize that and to preserve and expand upon it.
  • Re-establish funding for the Youth Athletic Facilities (YAF) program as well as the “No Child Left Inside” program: it seems to us that the Task Force will have an easier path with the Legislature if it recommends funding programs and accounts already in state statute.The YAF program administered by the RCO can have a direct positive benefit for the State of Washington – it helps to upgrade athletic fields and to enable local parks agencies to construct all-weather fields that bring in tournaments, visitors and revenue for the State of Washington. Meanwhile, the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program can help with events and incentives to get people – especially kids – to experience the great outdoors.
  • Remove the ‘lid’ on dedicated non-highway-purpose recreation accounts that results in some of this money being diverted to the Motor Vehicle Fund (transportation budget):Another thing the Task Force can do is recommend the Legislature write a wrong with respect to the distribution of funding from dedicated non-highway-purpose recreation accounts. Under state law, fuel purchased at the pump by boaters, ORV riders and snowmobilers is supposed to go into dedicated infrastructure accounts that support those activities. While 23 cents of the 37.5 cents of gas tax paid by those users does go toward dedicated accounts, the other 14.5 cents is diverted to the Transportation Budget’s Motor Vehicle fund as a result of 2003 and 2005 legislative actions that had the effect of improperly putting a ‘lid’ on those accounts. This needs to be fixed.
  • Address liability risks that hinder the ability of landowners to make their lands available for recreation: We support “recreational immunity” fixes in statute to better enable landowners to allow their lands to be used for recreation and to charge fees for use of private lands. In the case of local parks, while we have ways of achieving field-sharing partnerships with schools, we believe those partnerships would be easier to achieve with stronger recreational immunity language in statute.
  • Reauthorize the ability of local governments to, at local discretion, use a portion of their Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) proceeds for maintenance and operations: Under 2010 legislation enacted by lawmakers, local agencies have the discretionary authority to utilize portions of their REET proceeds for maintenance and operations. For a few of our local parks agencies, this has been an important tool. We recommend this common-sense “local option” be reauthorized in or before 2016, when the sunset date on the 2010 legislation will come around.
  • Sustainable funding: Lastly, we want to encourage you as Task Force members to think about sustainable funding options for recreation, as we believe there is a clear need. We urge that any funding options you recommend be for BOTH state and local needs, that they be sustainable and equitable, and that they have a nexus with the outdoors and recreation. We also encourage you to think not just about capital needs, but about M&O funding needs as well.

Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to continuing to track the work of the Task Force, and appreciate you looking at the above recommendations.

Sincerely,