Forest fee program fails Bookkeeping 101
The Forest Services fee demonstration program just
failed Bookkeeping 101. The congressionally mandated pay-to-play program that began in
1997 imposes a fee on hikers, bikers, back-country skiers and other non-commercial users
of public forest lands.
This week U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson told the Forest Service her
office would not prosecute people ticketed for not paying the fee because prosecutions
cost "too much."
She charged that the Forest Service had shifted the cost of
prosecutions to her office without her agreement. Such prosecutionssimilar to
enforcement of parking ticketshave never been part of her budget.
A deputy U.S. attorney in Richardsons office called the fees
"unfair" because the Forest Service did not create a system that can ensure
every user pays.
The U.S. attorneys drove home points raised early on in public
hearings. Apparently, no one listened.
When the one and only hearing on the controversial forest fees was held
in Ketchum in 1998, one of the first questions asked was, "How much will fee
collection and enforcement cost?"
A surprised public listened as a Forest Service spokesman said the
Forest Service had done no cost projections on collection, enforcement or prosecution.
Members of the public speculated that the fees collected would not be
enough to cover the costs of the program, let alone fund forest improvements. They urged
forest officials and U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, who was at the hearing through the magic of a
speakerphone, to do the simple arithmetic.
They didnt.
Forest Service personnel who would never think of going on a long
wilderness trip without a map, went ahead and undertook the congressionally mandated fee
pilot program without charting a path. The Forest Service left Richardson to shoulder her
new work load alone, while it merrily spent its newly found "free money" on
trail maintenance and new outhouses.
Now, forest officials are scurrying to "solve the problem" by
meeting with Richardson.
Richardson should quickly calculate what it will cost her office to
prosecute non-payers. She should give the Forest Service a bill along with an estimate for
future services.
Its a good bet the bill, along with the cost of toll booths and
fee stations that might make the system fair, will exceed the $260,000 in fees collected
since 1997 when the program began.
With bill in hand, the Forest Service should declare the fee program a
failure, go back to Congress, and get its funding from the proper placefrom federal
income tax revenues.