Legislative leaders appear to agree that Mississippi’s long-neglected state parks need help, but while the Senate is pushing for privatization and turning parks over to local governments, the House wants to find a permanent stream of public funding, according to the Delta Democrat-Times.
“What that tells me is that the House and Senate agree it’s an issue,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the Senate, and said fixing the Mississippi’s dilapidated state parks is a priority. “We’ll all get together on this.”
Mississippi’s state parks have suffered from years of neglected maintenance and budget cuts to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks. The price tag to bring the state’s 25 parks (three of which are run by local governments) up to snuff is an estimated $147 million. Plus, millions more a year would be needed to keep them up — prompting discussion of privatization and a search for other options.
Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Chairman Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp, with Hosemann’s backing has authored Senate Bill 2486 that would leave only four state parks under MDWFP management: Holmes County, Leroy Percy, LeFleur’s Bluff and Shepard. Others would be leased to private entities, turned over to counties or cities, or converted to wildlife conservation areas.
Hosemann said many parks could benefit from “an infusion of knowledge and capital” from privatization.
But privatization of parks has drawn fierce debate nationwide and in Mississippi. Opponents fear private developers would “cherry-pick” the best state parks that could turn profits leaving others neglected, or that privatization would turn parks into expensive resorts and limit public access.
House Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Chairman Bill Kinkade’s committee has moved forward two measures. One, House Bill 152, would divert $3.5 million a year in state lottery money to a “deferred maintenance” plan for parks. Another, House Bill 1231, would divert about a million a year in sales taxes collected at sporting goods stores to a new “Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund,” with the fund capped at $20 million. Kinkade said other measures, such as bonds or borrowing bills for parks, will likely be considered this year.
Kinkade said he is trying to provide dedicated sources of funding for parks maintenance and to match federal funds as many other states do. He said the Senate plan appears “short-sighted.”
“All (the Senate) is giving is a partial privatization plan,” Kinkade said. “That’s not a long-term strategic plan. I don’t want to send bad smoke signals about us not looking at their proposal, but I am concerned about it being a short-sighted plan. These state parks belong to the people of this state … It’s an issue of conservation of our natural resources.”
The lottery parks bill, authored by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, originally called for diverting 10% of lottery proceeds to parks, but Kinkade said that is being pared down to $3.5 million.
Current law dedicates up to $80 million a year in state lottery proceeds to road and bridge funding, with any additional going to an education fund. The lottery hasn’t operated for a full fiscal year yet, but for its first eight months, the state netted more than $70 million and has recently been averaging about $10 million a week.
Kinkade said he has met with House education, appropriations, and transportation leaders and they’ve approved of the parks diversion of lottery money. He noted that state parks include about 85 miles of roads and bridges — a large part of the maintenance cost that would be in line with the intent of the lottery law to fund infrastructure.
