...Darwin Maitland
The Idaho RV Fund results from the collection of fees for RV stickers that are required for every RV registered in the State. The authorization for the sticker, fee schedule and the establishment of the Fund can be found in Idaho Code 49-445 and 49-448. The fund is administered by Parks Board to “provide financial assistance in the form of grants to public entities..... to promote health, safety and enjoyment of recreational vehicle users." The fund is spent in the following ways:
- Grants: This is the most obvious and most easily understood process. The Department solicits grant applications from "public entities" including Cities, Counties, Tribes, as well as State and Federal agencies. The grants are evaluated, ranked and distributed on an annual basis. Grant allocations for prior years are available from IDPR...
- Administration: Idaho Code allows up to 15% of the annual collections to be set aside for administration of the program by IDPR. Administration costs are a reasonable charge to the fund for the administration of the program. These costs can include a portion of rent and facilities as well as salaries for personnel involved in management or supervision of the program.
Users have a right and a responsibility to know how these funds are spent. The information is available upon request from IDPR. There may be some confusion about money being spent for the support of the registration program. Is the RV fund paying for the entire reservation system even for those reservations that are not RV related? It appears that the money collected as reservation fees by Reserve America is transferred to IDPR and an invoice for program costs is also sent. The invoice for program cost is paid from the 15% administration fund. Where do the reservation fees that are suppose to pay for the reservation system go? - Direct Transfers: Recently the Legislature severely cut the IDPR budget. The Recreation Bureau was not impacted because it is funded with dedicated funds. IDPR was faced with significant park closures as one option to accommodate the budget shortfall. Since Idaho State Parks provide substantial opportunities for the RV community, the RV advisory agreed to provide stopgap funding directly to IDPR to operate parks with RV facilities. The initial agreement was for up to $2,000,000 per year for up to 5 years. The Board has established direction to the staff that the diversion may continue in an amount of up to $1,500,000 until FY 2015. The diversion will be terminated for FY 2016.
It is critical the RV community track how those funds are spent and that the diversion of the funds ends in 2015.
Legislative Distribution: In 2011, the JFAC Committee proposed a direct transfer of $3,000,000 from the RV fund to IDPR. This money was for specific projects including construction and maintenance projects. There was a great deal of confusion about how much of the RV fund through the grant process was being used on federal lands.
This is first time that I know of that the legislature has directed how registration money is spent; after all, there are statutes in place to determine that. The RV registration money is ‘private’ dollars not general fund money. The RV community lobbied for the registration fee so they could provide the necessary infrastructure for their recreation. It is important that the RV community retain control of those funds. It would seem unfair to ask the RV community to take over the responsibility for funding a large portion of the parks budget long term.
What we are finding out from our poll and this isn’t official yet, but RV users spend a good deal of time recreating on the federal lands thereby justifying the use of the registration moneys there.
