Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Texas' beloved state parks system, which entices more than 10 million visitors annually, is in deplorable condition after being severely and irrationally underfunded for years.

Those empowered to correct the problem -- top statewide elected officials and the Legislature -- are the ones responsible for it. They have starved the system financially by diverting tens of millions of dollars from it each year, with the result that Texas ranks 49th in per capita funding for parks.

But the guilty parties have a chance to redeem themselves in the new legislative session launched Jan. 9.

There's only one way to do that: They must greatly increase funding for the parks system to give it a decent operating budget and atone for the gross neglect of past years.

The Legislature should heed the recommendations of a stellar Texas State Parks Advisory Committee, headed by former state Sen. John Montford. The panel recommended in August that all the money from a state sporting goods tax go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the state parks system and grants that it awards to local parks. The tax was established in 1993 for that very purpose, but the Legislature diverted most of the revenue from it to other uses.

State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, commendably has filed legislation to remove a cap that has severely limited parks funding from the tax.

The levy generates $110 million in annual revenue, but the most recent appropriations bill allocated only $20.5 million for parks: $15.5 million for state parks and $5 million for local parks.

Under Hilderbran's bill, which he described as "an effort to restore excellence" to the state park system, all $110 million from the sporting goods tax would go for parks -- about a $90 million increase in funding.

There's a lot of catching up to do. An in-depth report in July by R.A. Dyer of the Star-Telegram Austin Bureau laid bare the shabby, cash-strapped conditions of the parks system, which is part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The report told a sad tale of staff layoffs, shuttered facilities, dilapidated restrooms, overflowing trash bins, deteriorated water and waste-water systems, and scores of inoperable vehicles. The parks' plight also was illuminated in numerous editorials and columns in the Star-Telegram, as well as in other newspapers and broadcast reports around the state.

It became obvious that state officials, from Gov. Rick Perry on down, had been miserably poor stewards of one of the state's most prized assets: a parks system that stretches from swampy, mysterious Caddo Lake in East Texas to the rugged, inspiring Big Bend Ranch State Park of far West Texas.

In response to a public outcry, Perry said he supported a large increase in parks funding and at least implied that the revenue from the sporting goods tax should be fully dedicated to the parks system.

We therefore were rather surprised when he recently told the Star-Telegram that some of the tax possibly should be rebated to purchasers of sporting goods in the event that the tax provided more money than the parks system needed or could spend wisely.

We seriously doubt, however, that the tax would provide the parks system with more than it needs or could prudently spend.

Besides, there's no mechanism in place to provide rebates, nor any hue and cry from the general public for them.

George Bristol, a member of the state parks advisory committee and president of the Texas Coalition for Conservation, a leading parks advocate, expressed alarm about Perry's suggesting such a rebate and questioning whether the parks system could spend the tax revenue judiciously.

"First of all, the people who use parks, ... and Texans in general, are not looking for a rebate. They love their parks and are willing to pay for them," Bristol said in an e-mail. "This is proven time after time in public opinion polls and at the ballot box."

Perry's suggestion that the additional money might not be spent wisely "is contrary to all the testimony gathered by the Texas State Parks Advisory Committee," Bristol said. The panel's recommendations were unanimously accepted by the Perry-appointed Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, Bristol said.

During the parks advisory committee's deliberations, state parks staff members informed the panel "that there is a roughly $400 million backlog" of needed major and minor repairs, Bristol said.

If Perry and the Legislature somehow conclude that the state parks system doesn't need all the sporting goods tax revenue, or couldn't spend it all wisely, we have a suggestion for how a small portion could be spent.

About $2.6 million is still needed to enable the Tarrant Regional Water District to buy -- from the state -- a 400-acre site bordering Eagle Mountain Lake for conversion into a local, nature-oriented park. In September, Perry announced an agreement in principle for the purchase.

Given that Texas Parks and Wildlife originally bought the site for a state park but failed to develop it, and given that Tarrant County lacks a single state park despite being the third most-populous county in Texas, perhaps Perry and the state agency would be willing to provide $2.6 million in state parks money to close the deal.

How about it, Governor?