Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved via the Texas House of Representatives & other sources.
AUSTIN, Tex. - The ballot for the upcoming Texas elections includes Proposition 5, which would provide a permanent and reliable source of funds for state parks and historic sites. The amendment would not increase any taxes, but would ensure the parks received the money allocated to them in 1993, when the state legislature dedicated the revenue that comes from the state sales tax on sporting goods to fund the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the Texas Historical Commission (THC). The parks were to receive 93 percent of the funds, the historic sites 7 percent.
From 1993 to 2017, the state collected nearly $2.5 billion in revenues from the sporting goods sales tax, but only about 40 percent was appropriated for parks during that period, the rest being used by the legislature for other purposes. In recent years, the parks system has built up an $800 million backlog of deferred maintenance due to lack of funding.
If passed by voters on Nov. 5, Proposition 5 would require 100 percent of the collected sales tax to go to the TPWD and THC. The legislature could still temporarily divert up to 50 percent of the revenue for emergency purposes with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.
Proposition 5 is sponsored by the Texas Coalition of State Parks and enjoys bipartisan support in the legislature. Rep. John Cyrier points out in the Gonzales Inquirer that state parks are central to the fishing, hunting, outdoor sporting, and tourism industries in Texas, which contribute billions of dollars in annual economic impact and support more than one million Texas jobs.
Opponents
to Proposition 5 say that it would diminish the Legislature’s ability to
prioritize state needs, possibly leading to unnecessary growth of the state
budget and that the amendment is unnecessary because the legislature has
allocated nearly all of the sales tax revenue to TPWD and THC in the last two
budgets.
Read the full text of Proposition 5, as well as other propositions on the ballot, here. Texas Parks and Wildlife details projects funded by the sales tax on the TPWD website.