KIRO TV finds park donations spike after state forces citizens to opt out
KIRO-TV.com
Chris Halsne of KIRO 7 Eyewitness News in Seattle followed up on the $5 donation for state parks that vehicle owners found on their registration renewals. He discovered that many residents didn’t realize they’d opted to donate because the state had automatically rolled the donation into the total due. Those not wishing to donate had to subtract $5 from the total because Washington state officials had adopted the “Montana Plan,” named after the state where officials first used the opt-out-of-donating system.
The change resulted in an increase in those donating to the state parks from about 3 percent to more than 50 percent.
Chris notes the donation “resulted in large amounts of cash rolling into State Parks Department coffers. The old system generated on average about $57,000 a month. The new system averages about $1 million a month.”
Online readers can download an Excel file with the donations broken down by county and month.
Today’s Tip: Watch for how government budget cuts affect businesses.
In Chris’ story, the park donation was used to offset a $42 million budget cut for state parks. In some states, communities have rallied to keep parks open to save the local tourism industry.
As cities and states trim budgets, pay attention to see where businesses in your area might feel the sting. For instance, The Star-Ledger in Newark did a story about the impact of a budget cut on New Jersey’s Urban Enterprise Zone program, which uses tax breaks to lure companies into certain areas. The Arizona Republic in Phoenix looked at how maintenance cuts could affect soccer fields that draw large tournaments.
Even if your local governments aren’t looking for new ways to tax business, consider other trickle-down effects from their efforts to balance budgets. My fellow blogger on BusinessJournalism.org, Melissa Preddy, did a recent post on how school-budget cuts could mean increased business for private tutoring firms. And I featured Frontline’s report on for-profit colleges in a recent post; it found part of the reason for that industry’s growth was budget cuts at community colleges at a time of high demand for higher education.
