Auditor: State parks not getting bang for bucks

Kentucky's state parks system is actually in worse shape today than it was in 2000, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and an aggressive plan under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher to make the parks profitable, according to State Auditor Crit Luallen.

The auditor's office on Wednesday released its latest examination of the state Parks Department, looking at the years 2000 to 2007.

No state parks system in the United States -- including Kentucky's -- is profitable. All require some level of state investment. And the good news is, the amount of money the state parks receive from the General Fund in 2007 ($29.1 million) is roughly the same as it has been for the past seven years, according to Luallen's report.

Unfortunately, she said, the state parks system is spending far more money than it used to from its self-generated revenues (such as food and lodging fees) and bonds, largely to build up the parks system and attract more paying visitors. But those visitors are not coming, and as a result, revenue has not kept pace.

Total expenditures at state parks from 2000 to 2007 jumped $10.7 million to reach $88.2 million last year. Revenues rose only $6.8 million to reach $57.1 million.

One big problem has been a decline in revenue-generating visitor activity. There have been marked drops in occupied rooms and meals served at the state's 17 resort parks and rounds played at the golf courses, Luallen said.

"We have literally spent $55 million on our golf courses during this period of time, but we have seen 16,000 fewer rounds of golf being played, and that's with five new golf courses," she said. "We're right to be very concerned if we're investing hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the facilities, but our numbers are actually going down every year."

For more on this story, see Thursday's Herald-Leader.

-- John Cheves

Comments

[Robert Cumming]

Fletcher had the golf course at Lake Cumberland replaced with Frisbee golf two years ago and now the new crew has started cutting back on food services changing suppliers . Unfortunately no more of that signature home made chunky bleu cheese dressing on the salad bar this Spring , just that cheap yellow looking stuff . So goes "The Nations Finest" State Park system.

[Weatherman]

The answer is privatization. Sell 'em all to Marriott or some hospitality management company that knows what they're doing.

[Lease, not sell]

Weatherman's close, but no cigar.

They should lease the lodging and dining operations, and while they're at it, cut those employees loose from the state merit system.

In counties with state parks, jobs in the lodges and dining rooms are used for patronage purposes as much as or more than state highway department jobs.

[dave]

Bob from Jamestown. I think you will make it without the chunky bleu cheese dressing.

[David Fitzwater]

If we would sell alcohol at the parks thins would pick up. No wants to stay where you have to drive 20-40 miles to get a beer.

Wake up!!!

[rob]

When I was a kid you could go to Jenny Wiley State Park and there was mini golf, paddle boats, horseback riding, skylift, and a beach. Now all that is gone and there is nothing for smaller kids to do. The parks need to go back to having something for all ages.

[Doug]

It's a complicated issue and I don't think privatization is the answer. Certainly politics plays a part in the problem but not so much on the patronage side - more so on the side of where the money is spent; as in - new golf courses, more rooms, new lodges, conference centers and the like.

Perhaps the full report also reflects how much money (and the multiplier) is spent by those who come from out of state to stay at our parks plus the effect of the wages spent in local economies.

All goes back to the "why" behind the Parks System - with the exception of Kentucky Dam, Lake Barkley and Lake Cumberland none of the other parks were designed to make money.

The Parks were designed to generate jobs, stimulate local economies plus preservation of resources.

It would be interesting to know a bottom line comparision of total cost before and after the Fletcher Admin!