Mich. non-resident rip-off

I'm a non-resident of Michigan so I pay the $30.50 for the annual pass (never know how many days we will be staying). I'm trying to figure where the $6.40 per day comes from. I was at Ft Custer State park during May. $21.00 per day. In addition had to pay $6.30 (for the period of time there) for the towed vehicle. I did not make a prior reservation so did not have to pay the $8.00 reservation fee (which is only charged once per reservation). We where only able to stay 3 days this year so it worked out to be (30.50/3 = 10.17 + 21.00 + 6.30/3 = 2.10) = $33.27 per day total fees). Now if we would have stayed longer the cost per day would have been cheaper yet. Michiagn has some ot the finest state parks for the money.

Property taxes total 30% more because we don't live there and we can't even park our mh there for a n hour or two.

wbwood wrote:

et2 wrote:

Shipper wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
The OP is full of beans with his posted prices and what you get at a Michigan State Park CG. Below is the copied and pasted 2013 CG fees for all Michigan State Park CG's.......

The Link!

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10365-32926--,00.html

The campground site fees are exactly the same for anyone from any state including Michigan residents.

I have a reservation at Mclain State Park for 4 days for $28 a night for a site with no pad, no water; only electric hookup. Most of the toilets are vault (pit). As a non-resident I have to purchase an annual pass (expires 12/31/2013) for $30.50 plus $6.40 for my Toad which increases the cost to $37.23 per night with a grass site that's probably not level.

I only took this site because every thing else was booked for the Labor Day weekend. The State Park has many vacancies (perhaps the OP has a point) so was easy to book, but I'll probably not stay at State Parks for the rest of my trip even after paying the annual fee. Unlike many other State's parks, Michigan doesn't seem to offer as much bang for the buck with their state parks. JMHO :p

Pads?? I have not seen state parks here that had pads. There are plenty of private campgrounds that can supply these needs at a comparable fee . Michigan has a short camping season compared to say Florida as mentioned or even Alabama. As said before "usually" our most popular state parks are reserved 100% way ahead of time (fact). So it seems there isn't a shortage of people waiting to pay the fee.

We've taken a big hit in Michigan compared to many other states financially over the last 10 years. We all are paying higher fees in Michigan for everything. Why wouldn't this get passed onto a nonresident? Or are we suppose to supplement your vacations as well?

Personally if I was traveling and planned ahead and knew of all fees involved, it would be my decision if it was acceptable. If not, I wouldn't complain about the fees when I had other choices that met my expectations. I wouldn't have any issues paying whatever fees in another state if that is really what I wanted.

Why pass it on to someone else? If no one but Michigan residents start using your campgrounds are they gonna lose money or just raise the rates for you? Does it cost the park more to operate for a non resident than it does for a resident? Maybe all states should charge non residents to use their state for everything. :h

Why not? There are plenty of non residence that return every year who have zero issues with the fees. If their willing to pay why should it bother you? It's like any other business, you get what the market will allow.As Mentioned here numerous times, a bit of pre trip planning would have made this a mute point. All states get their revenues one way or another. Could be tolls, taxes, tickets,etc.

The fees aren't going to cause a decline in camping revenues here, even after the attempts of the OP.

OP WROTE:
Anyone else camped Mich. state parks? I don't recommend it to non-residents. First off, they charge more both for the daily camping fee and park admission. So, even after purchasing an annual non-resident pass to cover admission, it cost us a total of about $32/day for camping. That might be borderline tolerable but all of the 3 state parks we used had elec only at the site; not water. Also, many of the sites had no actual pad; just on grass, inconsistently level, sometimes shared elec box and even difficult to tell exactly where to park. This is not a $30+ campsite. Also, by charging more for non-residents aren't they discouraging tourism. Come on, Mich, get modern. By the way, none of the campgrounds were full. For slightly less cost, Florida offers elec, water, sometimes even sewer and paved or nice gravel, level sites; at least at the campgrounds which have been updated."




TROLL

Complainers on this thread should go camping with the complainers on this thread where they are complaining about fees VA parks charge for dogs. There would be no end to the amount of campfire chatter these groups could generate.

I go camping to have fun and am well prepared to pay for it because I research it before making a reservation.

et2 wrote:

Shipper wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
The OP is full of beans with his posted prices and what you get at a Michigan State Park CG. Below is the copied and pasted 2013 CG fees for all Michigan State Park CG's.......

The Link!

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10365-32926--,00.html

The campground site fees are exactly the same for anyone from any state including Michigan residents.

I have a reservation at Mclain State Park for 4 days for $28 a night for a site with no pad, no water; only electric hookup. Most of the toilets are vault (pit). As a non-resident I have to purchase an annual pass (expires 12/31/2013) for $30.50 plus $6.40 for my Toad which increases the cost to $37.23 per night with a grass site that's probably not level.

I only took this site because every thing else was booked for the Labor Day weekend. The State Park has many vacancies (perhaps the OP has a point) so was easy to book, but I'll probably not stay at State Parks for the rest of my trip even after paying the annual fee. Unlike many other State's parks, Michigan doesn't seem to offer as much bang for the buck with their state parks. JMHO :p

Pads?? I have not seen state parks here that had pads. There are plenty of private campgrounds that can supply these needs at a comparable fee . Michigan has a short camping season compared to say Florida as mentioned or even Alabama. As said before "usually" our most popular state parks are reserved 100% way ahead of time (fact). So it seems there isn't a shortage of people waiting to pay the fee.

We've taken a big hit in Michigan compared to many other states financially over the last 10 years. We all are paying higher fees in Michigan for everything. Why wouldn't this get passed onto a nonresident? Or are we suppose to supplement your vacations as well?

Personally if I was traveling and planned ahead and knew of all fees involved, it would be my decision if it was acceptable. If not, I wouldn't complain about the fees when I had other choices that met my expectations. I wouldn't have any issues paying whatever fees in another state if that is really what I wanted.

Why pass it on to someone else? If no one but Michigan residents start using your campgrounds are they gonna lose money or just raise the rates for you? Does it cost the park more to operate for a non resident than it does for a resident? Maybe all states should charge non residents to use their state for everything. :h

Shipper - You really got caught between a rock and a hard place with a four-day stay. The passport is $8.40 per day. So the annual pass was the right way to go. But if you were staying longer than four days your average cost per day would have come down.

I am sure someone in state government crunched the numbers so they knew exactly what level of pricing gets them the most revenue from both non-residents and residents as well.

It's all in keeping with the governor's philosophy to chase after every dollar available.

Where else would a governor lift the ban on setting off fireworks (this ban has been in place for 60 or 70 years or more) because it is a taxable commodity. People used to get huge fines and even sent to jail for selling fireworks. Today that same practice is licensed by the state and generates sales tax as well as license fees. It if makes a buck, our governor will find it.

If they want to make some real money they could start taxing retiree pensions. Oops, I forgot, they are already started doing that to new retirees.

Nothing will change unless tourism actually declines. But it is not a case of picking on non-residents. It's just revenue optimization.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Anyone else camped Mich. state parks? I don't recommend it to non-residents. First off, they charge more both for the daily camping fee and park admission. So, even after purchasing an annual non-resident pass to cover admission, it cost us a total of about $32/day for camping. That might be borderline tolerable but all of the 3 state parks we used had elec only at the site; not water. Also, many of the sites had no actual pad; just on grass, inconsistently level, sometimes shared elec box and even difficult to tell exactly where to park. This is not a $30+ campsite. Also, by charging more for non-residents aren't they discouraging tourism. Come on, Mich, get modern. By the way, none of the campgrounds were full. For slightly less cost, Florida offers elec, water, sometimes even sewer and paved or nice gravel, level sites; at least at the campgrounds which have been updated.

We'll all come to Illinois to camp...oh wait...it'll cost me more in tolls than a campsite in Michigan. Around here, we don't charge people to drive on our roads!

Shipper wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
The OP is full of beans with his posted prices and what you get at a Michigan State Park CG. Below is the copied and pasted 2013 CG fees for all Michigan State Park CG's.......

The Link!

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10365-32926--,00.html

The campground site fees are exactly the same for anyone from any state including Michigan residents.

I have a reservation at Mclain State Park for 4 days for $28 a night for a site with no pad, no water; only electric hookup. Most of the toilets are vault (pit). As a non-resident I have to purchase an annual pass (expires 12/31/2013) for $30.50 plus $6.40 for my Toad which increases the cost to $37.23 per night with a grass site that's probably not level.

I only took this site because every thing else was booked for the Labor Day weekend. The State Park has many vacancies (perhaps the OP has a point) so was easy to book, but I'll probably not stay at State Parks for the rest of my trip even after paying the annual fee. Unlike many other State's parks, Michigan doesn't seem to offer as much bang for the buck with their state parks. JMHO :p

Pads?? I have not seen state parks here that had pads. There are plenty of private campgrounds that can supply these needs at a comparable fee . Michigan has a short camping season compared to say Florida as mentioned or even Alabama. As said before "usually" our most popular state parks are reserved 100% way ahead of time (fact). So it seems there isn't a shortage of people waiting to pay the fee.

We've taken a big hit in Michigan compared to many other states financially over the last 10 years. We all are paying higher fees in Michigan for everything. Why wouldn't this get passed onto a nonresident? Or are we suppose to supplement your vacations as well?

Personally if I was traveling and planned ahead and knew of all fees involved, it would be my decision if it was acceptable. If not, I wouldn't complain about the fees when I had other choices that met my expectations. I wouldn't have any issues paying whatever fees in another state if that is really what I wanted.

rockhillmanor wrote:

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Anyone else camped Mich. state parks? I don't recommend it to non-residents. First off, they charge more both for the daily camping fee and park admission. So, even after purchasing an annual non-resident pass to cover admission, it cost us a total of about $32/day for camping. That might be borderline tolerable but all of the 3 state parks we used had elec only at the site; not water. Also, many of the sites had no actual pad; just on grass, inconsistently level, sometimes shared elec box and even difficult to tell exactly where to park. This is not a $30+ campsite. Also, by charging more for non-residents aren't they discouraging tourism. Come on, Mich, get modern. By the way, none of the campgrounds were full. For slightly less cost, Florida offers elec, water, sometimes even sewer and paved or nice gravel, level sites; at least at the campgrounds which have been updated.

Is it the comparison chart of resident vs non-resident that is getting your dander up? And not really that the rates are high?

Residents get a 'discount' to stay at THEIR state parks. We PAY taxes for our state parks and we 'are' entitled to a discount.

Key word here is "discount to tax paying residents". NOT discouraging tourism.

We pay state taxes and it goes to our parks as well as many other states. Yet nc does not charge a non resident fee to stay in any of them. The most you will pay is $25/night (to include the $3 reservation fee for everyone). This is for water and electric (using stone mountain state park as an example) and there are a couple of handicap sites have sewer with them. And these are paved pads with a lot of room. For a few bucks less, you can go somewhere like hanging rock state park with no hook ups and gravel pads.

It's a shame that some states have their state park rates for around the price of a somewhat decent private campground with fhu and other amenities. The rates don't sound bad, but by the time you start adding fees ( non resident, pets, toads, extra people) it really takes something of value to something less. And more people look to state parks due to the value you normally would receive.