The Texas Recreation & Park Society supports the following positions.

  • Recommendations of the State Park Advisory Board Report including:
  • $25 million in annual appropriations for the Texas Recreation & Parks Account.
  • Increased funding for the State Park operations, maintenance, acquisition and capital improvements to meet current and future needs.
  • To ensure that no legislative appropriation riders set aside TRPA money for specific projects or locales. All TRPA fund awards should be subject to the established competitive grant process.

For more information about TRAPS and the TRAPS Legislative Platform see For theState ParkAdvisory Board Report see:

Background

In 1979 the Texas Legislature established the Local Park Fund (LPF) toprovide matching grants to local governments for parks and recreation lands and facilities.The LPF was initially funded with cigarette sales tax revenue. In 1993, the Legislature revamped the program and created the Texas Recreation & Parks Account (TRPA). The TRPA statutory revenue source is a portion of the sales tax collected on sporting goods(Fund 467). The Legislature is authorized to appropriate up to $15.5 million per year for TRPA and to-date, TRPA has supported 1,029 local grant projects totaling over $623 million in assistance.

Although TRPA Legislature authorizes the appropriation of $15.5 million per year recent appropriations have fallen far short of that level. For FY 2004-05, only $13.5 million was appropriated and for FY 2006-07, only $5.6 million was appropriated.

State parks also receive sporting goods sales tax revenue through Fund 64. Recent appropriations have not been reduced, but current funding falls short of meeting present needs and the State Parks are in a dire condition. State Parks are being closed, operational hours reduced, staff layoffs and reductions are occurring, facilities within the State parks are being closed for health and safety reasons, and there is little money for new acquisitions or capital improvements.

The following are highlights from the2006 Sunshine, Soccer & Success: An Assessment of the Impact of Municipal Parks & Recreation Facilities & Programs on Business Activities in Texas report prepared by The Perryman Group.

  • The impact of local parks was found to include $6.44 billion in spending and 45,623 jobs.
  • Adequate funding for local parks can improve the quality of life for all Texans while simultaneously enhancing the economy and future tax receipts.
  • Local parks funding isa good investment of tax dollarsand the overall benefits far exceed costs.
  • The incremental net fiscal revenue toState government from local parks activity is $171.6 million per year (Almost 7 times the level of funding proposed by the State Parks Advisory Board).

A 2004 State Parks Economic Impact Study prepared by TexasA&MUniversity concluded that 80 Texas State Parks generated $793 million in sales, $456 million in resident income and11,928 jobs each year.

Texas Recreation & Park Society (TRAPS)

The Texas Recreation & Parks Society is a 501C(3) non-profit professional and educational organization that was founded over 65 years ago to advance the profession of parks, recreation and leisure services. The membership includes more than 2,200 public and private sector professionals from all ofTexas.