The Argument: Should Massachusetts eliminate day-use parking fees at all state parks and reservations?
John Laidler | The Boston Globe | November 10, 2022
YES
Doug Pizzi
Executive director of Massachusetts Conservation Voters; Marlborough resident
When COVID-19 spread like wildfire in the spring of 2020, Massachusetts allowed our state parks, forests, and beaches to stay open and free from day-use parking fees. With most places of professional and social interaction closing, our state open spaces provided the perfect respite for mind and body. That is still the case.
Today, a less virulent pandemic combined with some positive changes state lawmakers made in the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s fiscal 2023 budget — along with stubborn inflation — mean it is time to consider permanently eliminating day-use parking fees at our state parks, forests, and beaches.
For the first time since at least fiscal 2001, our state parks agency doesn’t have to rely on fees and other income it takes in — so-called retained revenue — to operate its facilities. Retained revenue rose from $5.5 million that year to more than $25 million by fiscal 2022. This fiscal year, state lawmakers eliminated retained revenue and fully funded DCR’s operations at $85 million with general revenue tax dollars, a $10 million increase over the previous year. Any money DCR does take in now goes to the legislatively controlled general fund for later use.
Not all Massachusetts state parks charge day-use parking fees — the popular Middlesex Fells Reservation and Revere Beach, the nation’s first public beach, are both free. Where day-use parking fees are required, they range from $5 to $15. Massachusetts residents also can purchase a $60 season pass. Any resident 62 or older can purchase a $10 lifetime pass. If you’re out of state, you’re out of luck, as day-use parking fees can range from $20 to $40.
In New England, Connecticut is the only state where most state parks offer free parking to residents. If Massachusetts exempts residents from day-use parking fees, it will open our parks to more residents, especially from environmental justice communities. It also could encourage higher turnover at parks with limited parking facilities because users would no longer feel the need to stay at a park all day to get their money’s worth.
My organization, Massachusetts Conservation Voters, thinks we should also take this approach to our popular forests, parks, and beaches. Let’s make them, like Revere Beach and the Middlesex Fells, truly open to all.
NO
Steve Feinstein
Columnist at American Thinker, an online magazine; historian, business analyst; Foxborough resident
There is a thought afloat these days that Massachusetts should drop day-use parking fees at all state parks and reservations. While it sounds positive and compassionate on the surface, it is not a good idea.
The state’s parks and reservations remain a good buy for their “customers.” Spending a day at the park is still something that delivers true value and enjoyment to families without costing a lot of money. Considering everything else families are dealing with these days — skyrocketing home energy bills, gasoline that has surged in cost over the last two years, groceries and other necessities jumping to unheard-of heights — our state parks and reservations are shining stars of respite from the continual effects of inflation. Our parks are both eminently affordable and readily available, two traits that are highly prized these days.
The fact that these parks attract large numbers of visitors is all the evidence you need that the cost of day-use parking is not discouraging the public from using them. People vote with their feet. If they believed they were not getting their money’s worth, families would choose not to come to these facilities and go elsewhere for their recreation.
There is nothing wrong with asking the people that enjoy and benefit from a public resource to pay something in return. The state is currently flush with revenues, but that will likely not always be the case.
Another important consideration is that there is no popular groundswell of demand for free day-use parking at state parks. There are a lot of issues facing Massachusetts right now. Coming off a state and national election season, Massachusetts residents are mostly concerned about the important, serious issues facing us as a Commonwealth. They wonder why home energy prices are rising so fast and whether the region will run out of fuel this winter. They want to know why they still cannot depend on finding the basics at the supermarket each week, whether schools are adequately meeting their children’s needs, what is being done about the fentanyl crisis. Those are the important issues before us in Massachusetts: The cost of living, the quality of life, and our kids’ education.
Providing free parking at state parks is an unnecessary solution in search of a nonexistent problem.
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