NATIONAL PARKS: States carry $2M tab for operations during shutdown
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Thursday, October 17, 2013
A handful of states spent more than $2 million to operate more than a dozen national parks during the 16-day government shutdown, and it remains unclear whether Congress will pay them back.
Utah spent the most at roughly $1 million to run red-rock gems including Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon national parks for six days.
"Our governor is working with our congressional delegation to get reimbursed for that money," said Nate McDonald, a spokesman for Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R).
Arizona spent almost $500,000 to keep the Grand Canyon open for five days during the shutdown, and Colorado, South Dakota, New York, Tennessee and North Carolina also spent significant sums to reopen national park units in those states.
The budget deal signed by President Obama last night to reopen the government did not contain language to reimburse the states, according to Republican and Democratic aides on the Senate Appropriations Committee. An Interior Department spokesman said the agency would need specific direction from Congress to reimburse the money.
Focus now shifts to a pair of bills by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) that would reimburse the states within 90 days for costs associated with operating the national parks.
Alee Lockman, a spokeswoman for Daines, said that the congressman was disappointed the Senate funding deal failed to reimburse the state but that he is encouraged the bills have gained bipartisan support.
S. 1572, which is co-sponsored by Senate Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), yesterday picked up two Democratic co-sponsors in Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet. Daines' H.R. 3286 has 21 co-sponsors, including Democrats from Colorado, Arizona and Utah.
Emails to the offices of Alexander, Hatch and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were not returned by press time.
"Our beautiful parks are one of the key economic drivers in our state, and Gov. Herbert did the right thing in working out an agreement with the Department of the Interior," Hatch said in a statement earlier this week. "It's only fair and right for the state to be reimbursed for picking up the federal government's slack. I hope Majority Leader [Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] will bring this bill up for a vote soon so Utah taxpayers can be reimbursed."
Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said the National Park Service was able to collect revenues from the parks that reopened during the shutdown, even though states were paying its workers to run them.
It's unclear whether leaders in either chamber will allow a vote on Daines' and Alexander's bills.
Despite the park costs, some states greatly benefited from the Senate budget deal.
While Colorado spent just more than $200,000 to operate Rocky Mountain National Park for six days during the shutdown, the Senate funding deal provided up to $350 million in additional emergency federal highway funding for the state to repair flood-damaged roads and bridges.
