Arizona Heritage Alliance

Arizona Game & Fish Heritage Fund O&M Resolution Workgroup Meeting Summary, 08/06/14

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nazsr_landscapephoto_600webArizona Game & Fish Heritage Fund O&M Resolution Workgroup Meeting Summary, 08/06/14

Attendees: Bob Vahle, Bill McLean, Josh Avey, Beth Woodin, Allen Taylor, Jim Unmacht, Jim deVos, Jim Hinkle, Jorge Canaca, Pat Barber, and Marianne Cox. Not attending: Bob Hernbrode Location: AGFD Headquarters

Meeting Summary:

  • Review of agenda, identification of additional agenda items including:
    • Addition of crowd funding to agenda for discussion
    • Clarification of the agenda: ‘discuss mechanisms/ability/guidance for Commission to consider regarding removal of non-historical structures properties that…’
    • June 16 meeting summary correction to incorporate suggestion to seek repayment of Heritage Fund funds previously swept by legislature to the list of approaches considered.
  • Group reviewed summary of Fiscal Year 13, 14, and 15 costing (budgeted and expenditure) as well as anticipated deferred maintenance costing for Heritage Fund acquired properties.
  • Discussion and agreement amongst group to allow recommend changing recommended modification to 17-298 whereby the Heritage Fund acquisition portion of the fund would change from 40% to 35% to allow for funding Heritage Fund acquired property operation and maintenance costing from the non-acquisition portion of the fund.
  • Discussed recommending amendment of Commission Policy to require annual Commission approval for use of Heritage Fund grant funds towards Heritage Fund acquired property operation and maintenance costing.
  • Discussed the need to utilize an open comment process to identify support for the recommendation to reduce the Heritage Fund acquisition portion from 40% to 35%; it was noted that this work group was established with membership intended to represent stakeholders on this issue and that the expectation is that work group membership should be providing information regarding recommendations to the Commission, expressing positions to the work group and serving as liaisons and conduits of information in support of public process and transparency.
  • Discussed approach and recommended modification to 17-298 such that acquisition may include fee simple title, or any possessory or non-possessory interest in land.
  • Disposal of property that does not carry the Heritage Fund value is already possible albeit cumbersome.
  • Structure removal on existing or future properties was discussed as a suitable recommendation.
  • Recommendation to minimize acquisitions that have structures that would have regular operation and maintenance costs.
  • Discussed approaches and feasibility for use of endowments (long term) and crowd funding and corporate sponsorship approaches in building a privately held endowment fund.

A suite of options to present to the Commission at the September Commission meeting was developed that entail: 1) long term funding generation/savings (solutions), 2) Short term funding generation/solutions, and 3) Legislative changes. See list of options below.

Work group reviewed the objective and tenets put forth by the Commission and determined that they met those objectives to the extent possible. No further meetings are needed.

Action Items:

  • Send list of recommendations for Commission consideration – Marianne Cox
  • Present options developed by workgroup to Commission for consideration at September Commission meeting – Jim deVos

Adjourn

 

Arizona Game & Fish Heritage Fund O&M Resolution Workgroup Recommendations List for Commission Consideration, August 6, 2014

Long Term Funding Generation/Savings (solutions)

  • Endowment – held by 501(c)3
  • Divest of non-sensitive species value properties (those portions that no longer meet intent of purchase)
  • Remove non-value-added (non-historic) structures from properties
  • Investigate the economic potential of new programs such as a wildlife watching Heritage Fund stamp
  • Modify Heritage Fund language to change acquisition fund percent from 40 – 35% so 5% ends up in IIPAM from where O&M expenditures can be made
  • Modify Heritage Fund language to allow for acquisition via non-possessory language and the divestiture of these properties using same
  • Seek corporate sponsors
  • Develop an O&M assessment with each new property being considered for purchase

Short Term Funding Generation/Solutions:

  • Minimize acquisitions that have structures that need O&M
  • Crowd funding for specific O&M actions
  • Seek legislative refunding of funding swept by prior legislature in 2003 – $10 million from Heritage Fund acquisitions fund

Legislative Changes:

  • Change percentage in Heritage Fund Acquisition fund from 40% to 35% so extra 5% ends up in IIPAM from where O&M expenditures can be made
  • Allow for non-possessory acquisition such as conservation easement and disposal of property or portions of properties by “conservation buyer” under a conservation easement

Heritage Alliance Elects New Board & Officers

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At its December 5, 2014 board meeting at the Flinn Foundation office in Phoenix, the Arizona Heritage Alliance board of directors elected a new slate of board members and officers. Returning to the board for three-year terms are:

  • Bonnie Bariola, Florence
  • Margaret Bohannan, Scottsdale
  • The Honorable Sam Campana, Scottsdale
  • Peter Culp, Sedona
  • Don Farmer, Scottsdale
  • James Holway, Phoenix
  • Jennifer Martin​,​ Phoenix
  • Kathleen Roediger, Phoenix
  • William Thornton, Tucson
  • Elizabeth Woodin, Tucson
  • Tom Woods, Phoenix

Larry Weigel of Tucson was elected as a new board member. David C. Bartlett of Tucson chose to leave the board after five terms​. Beth Woodin, on behalf of the full board, thanked David for his 15 years of service on the board.

The board then elected the following officers for 2015:

  • President – Elizabeth Woodin, Tucson
  • Vice President – Jim McPherson, Phoenix
  • Secretary – Bonnie Bariola, Florence
  • Treasurer – William Thornton, Tucson

Board members also thanked Janice Miano for her work on behalf of the board.

7 ways to pay for great state parks

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[Source: Arizona Republic Editorial] – The ominous clouds hanging over Arizona State Parks need to start raining money. Parks managers struggle to protect valuable resources with no money from the General Fund. Unique remnants of Arizona’s heritage have lost dedicated money streams meant to protect them.

At risk are playgrounds for urban Arizonans and sources of tourism for rural residents. At stake is the chance for your children and grandchildren to travel through time from cave formations that began 200,000 years ago to prehistoric Indian ruins to a Spanish presidio to a territorial prison — and wrap it all up by waterskiing across a man-made lake.

What’s at stake is something irreplaceable and beloved. “It’s time people got their dander up and told the Legislature this is one thing that touches their lives,” says Ken Travous, former executive director of Arizona State Parks.

Here’s what people should tell lawmakers:

• Restore the State Parks share of the Heritage Fund. In 1990, voters approved $10 million a year from Lottery revenues for parks. During the recession, lawmakers took that funding. Several attempts to restore it have failed at the Legislature. It’s past time to give it back.

• Restore the authority of State Parks to spend money raised from gate fees, gift shops and other money-making enterprises. Park managers used to put increased revenue to work for the parks. Now they need legislative authorization to spend the money the parks make. Beginning in 2003, that enhancement fund was swept by lawmakers and used to supplant General Fund appropriations.

• Encourage innovation and resource development through parks’ concessions and development. Parks Director Bryan Martyn is looking at a plan to contract with a single concessionaire for all the state parks. It could result in more investment in the parks if the private contractor serving big money-makers, such as Lake Havasu, also is required to develop resources in less-visited parks. The State Parks Board needs to carefully scrutinize any contract to make sure it serves the public’s best interest.

• Recognize the need to create additional sources of permanent dedicated funding. A 2009 Morrison Institute report put the cost of operating and maintaining the parks at $40 million to $44 million a year. The current budget is half that. In addition, the parks have at least $80 million in capital needs. The idea of a surcharge or voluntary donation on vehicle registration has been floated — and rejected by lawmakers — since 2009. It is a painless way for people to add $5 or $10 every year to benefit state parks.

• Dedicated means dedicated. Protect funds that benefit the parks from legislative raids or sweeps.

• Restore the authority of the State Parks Board to hire and fire the parks director. That position became a political appointee with 2012 changes in the state personnel system. The director now serves at the pleasure of the governor. The parks board lost clout. The director lost the independence of being insulated from a governor’s whims.

• Face facts. “No state parks system in the United States pays for itself from earned revenue,” according to the Morrison Institute report, “The Price of Stewardship: The Future of Arizona’s State Parks.” Parks need more than they get from Arizona’s Legislature. They deserve more.

Arizonans demonstrated their support by establishing the Heritage Fund in 1990, and they reiterated that sentiment nearly two decades later when a Gallup Arizona poll released by the Center for the Future of Arizona found that “the state’s natural beauty and open spaces are seen by citizens as our greatest asset.”

It’s time to stop stiffing state parks.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

Arizona State Parks are a resource for today and a promise for tomorrow. But short-sighted funding decisions imperil their future. You can help change that.

  • VISIT. Arizona’s state parks offer dazzling natural wonders, family recreational activities and authentic windows into Arizona’s history and prehistory. azstateparks.com
  • BE A CHAMPION. There’s an election coming up. Ask candidates for state office how they plan to support Arizona’s parks and let them know you want this to be a priority issue.
  • GET INVOLVED. More than a dozen parks have volunteer “friends” groups that provide fund-raising and other services for their chosen park. For information on joining or starting one: azstateparks.com/volunteer/v_foundation.html

Arizona State Parks Foundation is a non-profit that engages in advocacy, fund-raising, and other support. Visit their website at arizonastateparksfoundation.org  The Arizona Heritage Alliance is a non-profit that promotes and protects the Heritage Fund and its goals: azheritage.org

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ABOUT THIS SERIES

Arizona State Parks are a valuable resource in great peril. Stripped of funding during the recession, they struggle without state money and stagger under deferred maintenance. Yet they offer open spaces and outdoor recreation for a growing urban population and an economic engine for rural communities. Popular with the public, but lacking political support, funding solutions can help the parks deliver on their remarkable potential.

State parks, a vision now out of reach

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[Source: Arizona Republic Editorial] – The bulldozers were a distant rumble when the push began in 1973 to create Catalina State Park north of Tucson. It took another decade before the land could be acquired and the park dedicated by then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt.

The land was remote then. Its 5,500 acres of foothills, canyons and streams lie between Tucson and Oracle, near the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, where the Coronado National Forest climbs up into the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The park, dotted with 5,000 saguaros, is so rugged that desert bighorn sheep were relocated there. More than 150 species of birds live within its boundaries.

Today, the park is anything but remote. A bustling shopping center sits across from the park entrance. Development tickles the boundaries.

Without the vision of state leaders 40 years ago, this pristine piece of Arizona could be covered with houses and 7-Elevens today.

Today, creating a Catalina State Park would be impossible. Buying the land “would be out of reach,” says Ken Travous, who was executive director of Arizona State Parks for 23 years. “It was almost out of reach then.”

Catalina draws a wide variety of visitors even on a weekday. Campgrounds are full and horses wait in the corrals at the equestrian center.

The value of this lush, open desert in an increasingly urban landscape far exceeds dollars and cents. The wisdom of those who preserved it sings on the wind through the needles of a saguaro: Prescient. Far-sighted.

As Arizona’s population grows and the cost of land increases, places like Catalina become even more important to a state shaped by its wide, open spaces.

The same is true of other state parks that celebrate the state’s natural beauty, as well as those that recall the past, such as the historic courthouse in Tombstone, the Spanish presidio in Tubac, the prehistoric ruins at Homolovi (closed for a year because of budget cuts) and the world-class geological formations in Kartchner Caverns. And don’t forget the bikini country of Lake Havasu or water skiing at Lyman Lake.

These are picture-postcard places where families make memories and rural communities make bank.

Nearly 2.5 million people visit the state parks each year, with half coming from out of state, says State Parks Director Bryan Martyn.

The parks are a playground for urban Arizonans, but they are an economic driver for rural areas.

Martyn says state parks bring more than $300 million to rural economies annually. That’s a powerful economic driver, but years of funding cuts have left those who run the parks unable to keep up with necessary repairs, let alone acquire new parks for future generations.

“Simply put, without a stable, sustainable funding, Arizona’s park system will not be able to survive,” according to a 2009 report from Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute.

When it comes to the consequences of not putting resources into our parks, Travous puts it even more bluntly:

“It will get to the point where they are so hammered you don’t want to go there.”

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

Arizona State Parks are a resource for today and a promise for tomorrow. But short-sighted funding decisions imperil their future. You can help change that.

  • VISIT. Arizona’s state parks offer dazzling natural wonders, family recreational activities and authentic windows into Arizona’s history and prehistory. azstateparks.com
  • BE A CHAMPION. There’s an election coming up. Ask candidates for state office how they plan to support Arizona’s parks and let them know you want this to be a priority issue.
  • GET INVOLVED. More than a dozen parks have volunteer “friends” groups that provide fund-raising and other services for their chosen park. For information on joining or starting one: azstateparks.com/volunteer/v_foundation.html

Arizona State Parks Foundation is a non-profit that engages in advocacy, fund-raising and other support:arizonastateparksfoundation.org

The Arizona Heritage Alliance is a non-profit that promotes and protects the Heritage Fund and its goals: azheritage.org

———-

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Arizona State Parks are a valuable resource in great peril. Stripped of funding during the recession, they struggle without state money and stagger under deferred maintenance. Yet they offer open spaces and outdoor recreation for a growing urban population and an economic engine for rural communities. Popular with the public, but lacking political support, funding solutions can help the parks deliver on their remarkable potential.