About five times a year my family loads up our RV and heads to Alabama. We have the choice of dozens of campgrounds and state parks at home in Georgia and throughout the Southeast, but for over a decade we’ve chosen Alabama state parks simply because they are the best.
Disappointed hardly describes how I felt as I watched our second home turned into a political hot potato in not one, but two special sessions in Montgomery. For years legislators have been so desperate for money, they have continually dipped into the park’s budget to fund other agencies.
How could a government take away such a beloved resource, one that costs taxpayers so little, but brings so much to the state? It’s not the tax dollars of Alabamians financing the parks; it’s those who visit the parks. The parks make the majority of their money from guest fees.
Half of the parks’ visitors are from out of state. Millions of guests patronize convenience stores, restaurants, gas stations and more when visiting Alabama’s parks. Last summer, after encouraging a neighbor and his family to join us at DeSoto State Park, he purchased a new truck in nearby Ft. Payne for $65,000 during our stay at the park. Tens of thousands of businesses benefit from the parks and the state sees hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact from the parks system.
I hope we can continue to rely on these incredible state parks for years to come. My plea is that citizens of Alabama will help their legislators recognize the incredible resource – both natural and economic – they have in the parks system.
Ed Crosby
Canton, Ga.