80th Legislature: Playing Politics With Historic Sites

The issue of appropriate funding for Texas’ state parks was supposed to be a key issue during the 80th Legislature. After all, it was a marquee issue of the 2006 election cycle.

However, like everything else, state parks have become the latest political ping pong ball of this session:

A House committee is recommending the transfer of 18 historic sites out of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department but says 12 others should stay, creating a hodgepodge without rhyme or reason other than politics, critics say.

The full House is expected to debate the issue soon.

Because of stiff opposition from some parks and historic sites groups, the chairman of the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee, Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, says he’s willing to remove other historical attractions from the transfer list.

And the point of all this is….? Let’s face it: in a perfect world, historic sites should be with the Texas Historical Commission and state parks should be with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

However, this isn’t a perfect world.

As luck would have it, John Nau III is the major catalyst behind the transfer. Nau, of course, is the beer distributor kingpin who has been on the Historical Commission since 1993 and has served as its Chairman since 1995. He is one of the top donors to right-wing Republicans in the state, including Governor Perry.
He uses a beer analogy as the reason behind his advocacy:

Nau, of Houston, owns the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship in Texas. He cites basic beer marketing to help explain why the state’s historic sites should be transferred to the Historical Commission.

“You’ve got to listen to what the consumer tells you. I better have the beer on the shelf when the consumer wants to buy, as opposed to doing it when it’s convenient to me,” he said.

“Why this transfer makes sense to me as a businessman and a taxpayer is that the skills set that (the Historical Commission has) is to focus on a very unique consumer base — that’s the heritage and cultural tourist,” Nau said. “Keep the places open when the consumer wants them to be and provide a visitors experience that causes them to come back to generate revenue for the communities that surround these places.”

You’ll note that Nau said nary a word about actual historic preservation, but that’s not the issue here. The issue here is that this is purely a political move directed by one of the state’s biggest political donors.

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