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User Fees For Public Venues: A Good Idea

by on Jul. 31, 2009, under Uncategorized

Resolved: charging user fees for parks, pools, etc… is a fair, defensible way to mitigate the costs of maintaining and operating public venues.

Want to visit Saguaro National Park?  $10 per car, or $25 for an annual pass.

Feel like a swim at one of Tucson Parks and Recreation pools?  That will be one dollar, or $50 for an annual pass.

IMO, all of the above are fair, reasonable prices to pay.

At first glance, it can rankle when you have to pay “extra” for using a government-supported service.  Don’t we already pay taxes for this sort of thing?

Yes, we do pay taxes.  Lots of them.  However, the quantity and quality of services we’ve come to expect from federal, state and local governments has always exceeded the revenues that government has available to pay for these services.  Especially in economic times like these.

User fees are one way to help keep these public resources open and maintained, without raising taxes.  Lower taxes…the conservative in me likes the sound of that.

User fees are also fair.  As the name says, the user pays the fee.  Unlike taxes, if you don’t use the service, you don’t have to pony up the extra cash to help pay for it. 

Lastly, the user fees I’ve encountered in the Tucson area are more than reasonable.  $25 for an annual pass to BOTH branches of Saguaro National Park?  I’m a regular at the Clemens Recreation Center, a Parks and Recreation gym located on Pima Community College’s East Campus.  The center offers a weight room with a fine array of equipment—for $1.25 a visit.  That’s less than a Diet Pepsi at Circle K.  $50 for an annual pass to the city’s pools—and only $14 for kids?  In my book, that’s a deal!

But those are my thoughts on the matter—what are yours? 

I’d like to hear from you about the subject of user fees for public venues, especially in the Tucson area.  For instance:

  • Do you think the whole concept of user fees for public resources is a fair one?
  • Are there some user fees in Tucson venues that you think are too high?
  • Are there some Tucson venues that are currently free, but shouldn’t be?

Those are just some suggested discussion points—anything related to user fees for public venues is fair game for this thread.

The floor is open!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 6:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • leftfield

    At least one problem I see with this is that, even though a facility is public, charging a user fee would mean only that public who could afford to pay the entrance fee would have use of the site.  

    • fortbuckley

      leftfield, I see your point.  But, IMO, a few dollars to use the pool—or better yet, pay for an annual family pass—isn’t an unreasonable cost.
       
      There should be a mechanism for providing passes to those families who really do have financial challenges.  I’ll do some research this week to see if the City of Tucson and Pima County already have such programs in place; I’ll write about my findings in my “Midweek Update,” on Wednesday.

      • leftfield

        Yes, in theory anyway, a few dollars seems within reach of most.  However, given the broad range of facilities and sites to which a fee could be applied, it seems that pretty soon we are going to get bogged down in splitting hairs over what is defined as “reasonable”.  

        I will say that we live near Catalina State Park and we find paying an annual fee is reasonable (in fact, probably one of the best bargains going) for us. 

        Some sites, I imagine, are going to be more expensive to maintain and manage, leading to higher fees ( assuming that part of the plan is that facilities be self-supporting).  Without some type of revenue-sharing between facilities, what are we going to do if an historically important site is not adequately supported by fees alone? 

  • radmax

    Only problem with the fee is that I believe all park revenues go into the general fund, if I’m not mistaken.

    • fortbuckley

      radmax, that’s a good question, for which I have no answer.  I’ll ask and get back to you on Wednesday.

  • Thomas D.

    You may be right but how many locals (read lower income folks) can afford to take the whole family to the Desert Museum, or the Pima Air Museum. Check with those two facilities and see how many locals go there. Not what you may think. (Its a low number). They will just get a netflix or blockbuster movie and some microwave popcorn or dollar Walgreen candy. If you check with the museums who charge you will see that the attendance has dropped a lot after they started to charge. Yes the Tucson Museum of Art does well but look who goes there.  Poor locals? Nope.

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