HomeMy WebLinkAbout3_Approve Resolution No_ 4044, Support of Full Fundi_3
Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Brit Fontenot, Assistant to the City Manager
Chris Kukulski, City Manager
SUBJECT: Commission Resolution 4044 in support of full funding for National Parks,
Battlefields and Monuments
MEETING DATE: July 23, 2007
RECOMMENDATION: Approve Commission Resolution 4044 in support of full
funding for National Parks, Battlefields and Monuments
BACKGROUND: On Monday, July 9, 2007, Danielle Blank of the National Parks
Conservation Association appeared before the Commission and presented the following
information:
The ecological heart and major economic driver for our region, Yellowstone National Park, faces a severe funding shortfall, threatening its integrity and the quality of the visitor experience. Across the country, national park operations are under-funded by approximately $800 million dollars each year. In addition, the backlog of maintenance and preservation needs exceeds several billion dollars. Yellowstone’s budget falls $23 million dollars short of what it needs to operate effectively each year.
In Yellowstone, the funding shortfall forces park management to make tough decisions, resulting in reduced numbers of law enforcement officers, the delay of many infrastructure projects, fewer interpretive rangers, and insufficient staffing to monitor and catalogue the parks many resources (see Park Funding Fact Sheet).
The health of Yellowstone is inextricably tied to that of the communities surrounding it. Americans have said that they will not visit National Parks where roads are in state of disrepair, restrooms are unclean, and visitor services are lacking. Communities like Bozeman must encourage the federal government to make National Parks a national priority, so that they continue to be positive forces for our regional economies (see Gateways to Yellowstone Report).
With the Centennial of the Park Service rapidly approaching in 2016, positive momentum is building to reinvest in our parks and so that they are in peak shape for their birthday. The President’s proposed budget for FY 2008 calls for a significant increase in park
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operating budgets, and on June 27th, the House of Representatives passed the largest funding increase ever provided for our national parks. This bill will go before the Senate next month and it is critical that Bozeman reminds Montana’s Congressional delegation of the importance of park funding to our community.
A diverse set of voices from around our state, ranging from local chamber of commerce to statewide tourism organizations, have passed resolutions encouraging Montana’s congressional delegation to support full park funding.
FISCAL EFFECTS: None identified.
ALTERNATIVES: As suggested by the Commission.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________________ ____________________________
Brit Fontenot, Assistant to the City Manager Chris A. Kukulski, City Manager
Attachment: Commission Resolution 4044
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COMMISSION RESOLUTION NO. 4044
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BOZEMAN,
MONTANA, IN SUPPORT OF FULL FUNDING FOR NATIONAL PARKS,
BATTLEFIELDS AND MOMNUMENTS
Preamble
The City Commission of the City of Bozeman urges Montana’s congressional delegation
to recognize the great natural, cultural and economic value Yellowstone and Glacier
national parks and the area’s other nationally significant places, such as its national
battlefields and monuments, provide to the businesses and citizens of this state. Chronic
under funding of the National Park System, which is well documented, puts our state’s
national parks, battlefields, monuments, and Montana employers and employees who
depend on them at risk. We urge Montana’s delegation to introduce, support, and pass
legislation that appropriates full funding for the national parks—increases the National
Park Service annual operating budget and eliminates the parks maintenance and road
repair backlogs.
WHEREAS, The City Commission of the City of Bozeman has a great interest in
ensuring the public, economic benefits, and general welfare of the Montana’s national
parks, battlefields, and monuments are maintained and protected for present and future
generations; and
WHEREAS, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks generate substantial
economic benefit for Montana through employment, tax revenues, visitor spending,
business expenditures to service visitors, National Park Service expenditures for park
employee salaries, supplies, services, construction and maintenance programs, etc.; and
WHEREAS, a General Accountability Office (GAO) report released in 2006
documented National Park Service operating budgets, when adjusted for inflation, are
further declining, the accommodation of newly mandated responsibilities including rising
energy prices, homeland security requirements, congressionally approved pay raises and
other mandates has resulted in substantial park operations cutbacks; and
WHEREAS, the Congressional Research Service has identified between $4.5 to
$9.7 billion backlog of overdue maintenance, road and other infrastructure repair
resulting from decades of annual shortfalls in parks’ operating budgets; and
WHEREAS, a series of business plan analyses conducted by business and policy
experts in conjunction with the National Park Service indicate that the parks’ annual
operations budget shortfall is in excess of $800 million, at least 32 percent short of what
is needed to operate all national parks and an estimated 35 percent short of the amount
needed to operate Yellowstone National Park; and
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WHEREAS, chronic under funding puts our parks, battlefields, monuments and
the communities, economies and businesses that rely upon them at risk and thwarts the
federal mandate for our national parks “to provide for the enjoyment of the [parks] in
such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of
future generations.”
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City Commission of the City
of Bozeman supports full funding of the National Park Service annual operations budgets
and elimination of maintenance and road repair backlogs for all park, battlefield and
monument units. We urge Montana’s congressional delegation to support and pass
legislation that accomplishes these goals.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the City Commission of the City of Bozeman,
Montana, this 23rd day of July 2007.
________________________________________
JEFF KRAUSS, Mayor
ATTEST:
____________________________________
CYNTHIA JORDAN DELANEY
Acting City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
__________________________________________
PAUL J. LUWE, City Attorney
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