80th Legislature: House Bill 318 & State Park Funding

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with State Rep. Sid Miller (R-Stephenville), who has authored HB 318 that restores the revenue from the Sporting Goods Tax to the Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife.

I wanted to talk with Rep. Miller because his bill is one many of us in the blogsphere have been anticipating since this past summer when the issue relating to the Sporting Goods Tax and the funding crisis with Texas’ state parks.
Miller says his bill restores the full allocation from the Sporting Goods Tax back to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

“Basically, this bill puts things back the way they were before the Legislature changed the allocation,” Rep. Miller said.

Miller, whose district includes the state’s first state park, Mother Neff State Park, is confident the reallocation will be corrected in this session.

“We’re going to do it. I don’t know if it will be my bill or someone else’s, but we will do it,” Miller said.

Miller also hinted at another issue Legislators will need to address in the coming session: that of historical sites currently under the control of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

“One of the problems we have to plan to address in the coming session is state parks that also have historical sites. There have been some problems with Parks & Wildlife not keeping those historical sites up properly,” Miller said.

“What we want to try to do is separate out those historical sites and transfer those over to the [Texas] Historical Commission,” Miller said.

Miller also noted that appropriations would be required to rectify some problems at various historic sites lik the Battleship Texas.
With regard to the reallocation of the Sporting Goods Tax, however, Miller says it has broad support.

“This is something there is a lot of support for,” he noted.

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