BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER | | Senator Fran Pavley, Chair | | 2011-2012 Regular Session | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- BILL NO: SB 825 HEARING DATE: January 10, 2012 AUTHOR: Corbett URGENCY: No VERSION: January 5, 2012 CONSULTANT: Marie Liu DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes SUBJECT: State Parks and Recreation BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) may issue publications giving information regarding its activities, powers, duties, and functions. Under Section 512 of the Public Resources Code, all monies generated from the sale of these publications must be deposited into the General Fund. The State Parks and Recreation Fund primarily receives revenues from fees charged at parks. This fund is used for the operation of state parks. PROPOSED LAW This bill would require that revenues from publication sales be deposited into the State Parks and Recreation Fund instead of the General Fund. ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT The author references the pending park closures as a result of budget cuts and states, "Every park closed harms our tourism industry and robs Californians of the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful places. SB 825 is a small but important way to give State Parks a tool to be more self-sufficient with their funding. Shifting Ýdeposits from publication sales] will give State Parks more incentive to create more revenue from publications and thereby more funding for parks." ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION None received. COMMENTS According to DPR, most of the publications published by the DPR 1 are informational (maps, brochures) and are given away for free. The vast majority of the publications available for purchase are published by cooperating associations (e.g. Friends of Ýblank] State Park), who may keep the revenues so long as the monies are reinvested into the park. This bill will not significantly increase the balance of the State Parks and Recreation Fund; however, the author's intent is to encourage DPR to be more entrepreneurial by allowing them to reap the rewards of creating profitable publications. SUPPORT None Received OPPOSITION None Received 2