JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Last week, Gov. Jay Nixon announced that he had approved the creation of three new state parks, but some lawmakers question whether or not those new public lands best serve Missourians.
The three parks; Ozark Mountain State Park, Bryant Creek State Park, and Eleven Point State Park; comprise a total of 8,095 acres of land in Taney, Douglas and Oregon Counties, respectively. The largest park will be Eleven Point with over 4,000 acres, featuring six miles of riverfront on the Eleven Point River.
“These new state parks ensure that we can protect and preserve these valuable natural landscapes for generations to come,” Nixon said of the new parks in a statement. “At a time when other states are closing or even selling state parks or charging day-use fees, we are expanding our system of state parks to offer more opportunities for Missourians to experience the outdoors, at no admission cost.”
However, opposing lawmakers have disputed the need to expand the state parks system, especially since the Missouri Department of Natural Resources reports that it has struggled to maintain upkeep costs for its 88 existing state park and historic sites. In October, State Parks Director Bill Bryan testified before a legislative committee that while there was little in the way of deferred maintenance for the parks system, it currently had about $212 million worth of “unscheduled maintenance,” which is not a priority nor funded via its capital improvement budget. That unscheduled maintenance includes roads, bridges, and other infrastructure improvements.
Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, has loudly opposed the expansion of the state park system given its current claims of budget woes and the use of ASARCO settlement funds to help purchase those areas.
“This is exactly what we’ve seen over the past several years of the Nixon administration,” Ross said of the new parks. “This is entirely self-serving… without regard for the rest of our existing state park system or the budget woes that it has proclaimed to have suffered over the last couple of years.”
He will file two pieces of legislation this session aiming to restore power back to the General Assembly on matters relating to state parks. One would require the sale of the land in Oregon County (with the possibility of having the sale of the Douglas and Taney county properties amended onto that bill) and one that would dictate the purchase of property by a state agency must be approved by the legislature.
Currently, only the sale of a property must be allowed by the legislature.
“The sword should cut both ways, and I think that to indebt the taxpayers, their representatives and senators should have a say in the purchase of that piece of property,” Ross said.
Beyond that, Ross criticized the creation of more state parks as part of a larger ploy from before the Nov. 8 elections for Nixon to land the job as Secretary of the Interior in a Hillary Clinton administration. Pres.-elect Donald Trump’s victory ended that hope, but Ross still says the governor was using ASARCO funds as more of a slush fund to create new parks. Ross was also unsatisfied with the lack of transparency to the legislature, local citizens and other stakeholders that have especially plagued the acquisition of the Eleven Point property.
More information regarding this controversy from early last year can be read here.
Ross also rejects the notion that state parks will bring an economic boon to areas nearest the state park.
“The reality is if government ownership of property were truly a boost to the economy, Shannon County wouldn’t be one of the poorest counties in the state,” he said. “Everyone in Shannon County would be a millionaire.”
Other legislators have also spoken out against the new parks. Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week that the finalized property purchases were a “land grab” by Nixon.
