Bill in Congress to increase Senior park pass to $80

$80 is still a bargain IMHO. We will get ours in June when we hit the magic age of 62.

The senior pass gets me into the Natl; Parks for free and then I also enjoy getting the camp ground fees at a 50% discount...

Fun while it all lasted I guess...

Roy Ken

NYCgrrl wrote:
$80.00 is a reasonable cost for the lifetime pass to me as long as you good use of it. Think you'll only use it infrequently than the annual pass is a better bang for the buck.

x2

Just look at the price people spend for a ticket at a sports arena just to watch one game? :R

$80.00 is a reasonable cost for the lifetime pass to me as long as you good use of it. Think you'll only use it infrequently than the annual pass is a better bang for the buck.

We enjoy our $10 passes. Quite a bargain.

I too have the $10 lifetime pass, but I'll admit, it made no economic sense for the govt to sell it to me at that rate just because I'm a geezer.

My first thoughts... NO, NO ,NO

Then reading some of the bill...

"H.R. 4680 adjusts the price of the lifetime America the Beautiful Senior Pass from $10 to $80, while including the option of a $20 annual pass. The revenue raised from the adjusted cost will be directed to the National Park Centennial Challenge Fund to finance signature projects across the National Park System. This has the potential to be an important new revenue source for NPS."

Then looking at those projects, maybe good, maybe not? By the way only two sponsors so far.

2016 projects

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/upload/National-Park-Service-FY-2016-Centennial-Challenge-Project-List-20160130.pdf

2015 projects

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/upload/FY15-Centennial-Challenge-project-list_revised.pdf

MrWizard wrote:
I don't oppose an increase, the parks need the money

I do oppose any add-on admin expenses that would eat the increase

I agree with this completely.
As a general rule, I always oppose any local/state/federal discounts and/or special programs aimed at people based on age, race, gender, ethnicity, etc. It is the opposite of what a free and equitable society should impart. What private entities may offer (or be allowed to offer) is a different story. At the risk of going off-topic, I'll leave it at that.

I don't oppose an increase, the parks need the money

I do oppose any add-on admin expenses that would eat the increase

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
The link you posted says the pass will cost:

1) $20 for a 12 month long pass, or

2) an amount equal to the cost of the regular pass for a lifetime pass. Which is currently $80 - it could be raised in the future.

That would be an administrative headache for federal agencies who accept the senior pass. Currently, the pass is checked against the ID of the person to verify the signatures are the same.

There would have to either be two different versions of the Senior Pass - a lifetime version and an annual version with an expiration date, or there would have to be an online database to check the verion/ validity of the pass when presented at a facility.

That would eat up much of the additional money raised.

It is as simple as discounting the current $80 pass to $20 for seniors. No additional administrative work required.