When the National Park Service quietly began the review that led to its new proposal to hike park entrance fees, officials say they looked at what people pay to get into other “family-oriented venues.”
The nation’s parks — including Utah’s “Mighty Five” — operate at a chronic financial deficit, yet even with federal subsidies, postponed maintenance has come to exceed $11 billion in backlogged projects. So in a surprise announcement Tuesday, the park service released a proposal to get visitors to cover a larger share of park costs.
But if even the proposal has a free-market logic to it, Utah’s Republican members of Congress aren’t buying.