Bill in Congress to increase Senior park pass to $80
Link Probably a good time to get yours just incase.
Forum Discussion
ktmrfs wrote:
when the pass was $10 the money supposedly went directly to the park that you purchased the pass at if you purchased it that way. We went to some small federal parks and they confirmed this when we got ours.
Hopefully it will the same with the new price.
It sounds like this new program will actually change the allocation/distribution of the funds directed from the senior pass. I'm not completely sure of exactly what the Endowment funds will end up funding (sounds like maybe deferred maintenance - which actually would be a good thing...but that's just a guess on my part).
The challenge fund money can only be spent if it is matched by non-government funds. I guess the idea is to encourage large granting organizations to participate more.
In the past, the funds from the passes and other recreation funds collected could be used for a variety of programs at the local park level.
The legislation, drafted by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, calls for the deposit of up to $10 million generated from all Park Service sales of America The Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes into a Second Century Endowment for the Park Service to be managed by the National Park Foundation. Any revenues above $10 million would be deposited into a Centennial Challenge fund for projects in the parks. However, those dollars would need to be matched by private dollars before they could be spent.
Under that formula, the theoretical $46 million figure cited above would deposit $10 million into the Second Century Endowment and $36 million into the Centennial Challenge fund.
"The full $80 from sale of the lifetime senior pass and full $20 from sale of the new annual pass will be deposited in either the Second Century Endowment (amounts up to $10 million) or the Centennial Challenge Fund (amounts in excess of $10 million)," Elise Daniel, the committee's press secretary, said in an email. "This means that revenue from sales of the senior pass will not be used in the same way as revenue from sales of non-senior annual passes."
