| Newly released General
Accounting Office (GAO) report slams accountability of U.S. Forest
Service Fee Demo Program
(Note: Those that have already experienced this rip-off for themselves need no explanation for this 'program.') May 24, 2003 A General Accounting Office (GAO) 40-page report titled "Information on Forest Service Management of Revenue from the Fee Demonstration Program" (2001), requested by Rep. Scott McInnis (R, Western Colorado) and released May 19, 2003, "reveals a deep-seated culture of deception and a total lack of accountability within the US Forest Service's Fee Demo program," says Scott Silver, Executive Director of Oregon-based, Wild Wilderness. The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-470, highlights can be read at http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d03470high.pdf HERE IS WHAT THE GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE FOUND: The US Forest Service (USFS) has been secretly subsidizing the management of its Fee Demo program with (in 2001) $10 million of appropriated tax dollars (p.32). Costs of fee collection at major Fee Demo "sites" -- such as the Southern California "Adventure Pass' and the Oregon and Washington "Northwest Forest Pass" -- have been underreported by concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions received by pass vendors. (p.25). The USFS has no mechanism for ascertaining whether Fee Demo has
lessened the deferred maintenance backlog, which is the very purpose for
which Fee Demo was created by Congress in 1996. What's more the GAO
concludes that the USFS has no idea how large their maintenance backlog
really is! (p.22) "In what amounts to a complete absence of accountability on the part of Fee Demo managers across the nation, the Forest Service has failed to mention in its annual Fee Demo Progress Reports to Congress that (in 2001) close to $10 million was used as a tax-dollar subsidy to administer the program" (p. 32) said Robert Funkhouser, President, Colorado-based Western Slope No Fee Coalition. "This alone immediately triples the $5 million which the Forest Service was declaring as the true cost of collection and administration for the program" adds Funkhouser. HOW MUCH FEE DEMO MONEY REALLY GOES TO HELP OUR FORESTS? The Forest Service's reported gross Fee Demo revenue for FY 2001 was over $35 million (p.6). From this figure we must subtract the reported cost of collection, $5,051,000 (p. 9), the $10 million of appropriated funds used to support the fee demonstration program (p.32), and the $4.6 million in user-fees previously collected at sites that produced fee income prior to becoming fee-demonstration sites [i.e., campgrounds, boat launches, etc. Source: April 2002 Interim Report to Congress on Fee Demo, p.23.] After these adjustments to gross are made, all of Forest Service fee-demo sites in all of the USA generated a total net increase in fee revenues of a mere $15 million. Based upon these figures, "The cost of collection is closer to 50% -- requiring more than $15 million to raise less than $15 million," said Funkhouser. "The $15 million adjusted net revenue is likely to still be too high" adds Alasdair Coyne, Director of California-based Keep the Sespe Wild who in June 2002 obtained information about vendor discounts using the Freedom of Information Act. "Vendor discounts for Adventure Passes sold in Southern California resulted in another $288,500 in lost fee-demo revenues. The revenues lost through vendor discounts at other sites throughout the nation are unknown but are likely to be considerable," said Coyne. "Until the General Accounting Office audits the BLM and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Fee Demo programs the amounts of cost of collection and the use of appropriated funds for program management is unclear. The net revenues for the BLM and USFWS combined is less than $4 million" adds Silver. FEE DEMO'S FUTURE IN THE BALANCE The Fee Demo Program was enacted in 1996, extended at least four times and is currently set to expire on September 30, 2004. Legislation to make it permanent did not move forward in 2002. President Bush has once again asked Congress to make these fees permanent but no legislation has yet been introduced in the current session. "Across the nation, forest fees have outraged the American public, who are well aware that tax dollars have maintained our National Forests for over a century, for all Americans to enjoy," said Silver. Forest fee protest groups are active in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington and other states. The state legislatures of California, Colorado, Oregon and New Hampshire have passed resolutions calling for an end to the Fee Demo program as have dozens of counties, cities and towns across the nation (for details see www.freeourforests.org/opposition.html ). "It is time for Congress to terminate this ill-conceived fee program, Americans have already paid taxes to maintain what is theirs. The perverse incentive created by letting the land management agencies appropriate their own funds, outside of congressional oversight, leads to the abuses we see in this report." states Funkhouser. "This GAO Report shows that the Forest Service misled Congress and the American people about the enormous costs involved with forest fees." Silver concludes: "This year Congress must decide the future of Fee Demo in our National Forests. The data revealed by the recent GAO Report show this to be an incredibly inefficient means of raising funds for public lands. The public has rejected Fee Demo and after seven years of the program so should Congress." Congressman McInnis, who is not philosophically opposed to the fees, requested the GAO audit to look into concerns raised by the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition and his constituents regarding the program. ----- PLEASE WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS! Your Congressman: Call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected. Letters should be addressed - Congressman ______, House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515. Your Senator: Here's a list of Senators from the major Western States that have forest fees, with their phone numbers and addresses. WESTERN SENATORS ON THE PHONE * Tell them why you're calling about it - (example) The Forest Service is unaccountable for the fee money they've spent. - Forest fees make so little money - and are so unpopular - that they need to be terminated this summer; * BLM and US Fish & Wildlife Service recreation fees must also be terminated. (A brief phone message is adequate.) SAMPLE LETTER (Please vary it somewhat from this sample version!) Dear Senator _____: The Forest Service is not accountable for the money they've raised with forest fees. The Forest Service has been supplementing their fee revenues with $10 million in appropriated tax dollars, which means they spent $15 million in 2001 to raise $15 million, when Congress limited Fee Demo's cost of collection to 15% of revenues. Will you find out for me the total amount of appropriated dollars that the Forest Service has used on forest fees since 1996 and what it was spent on? (Add why you personally oppose forest fees.) Sincerely, (PLEASE PRINT YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS VERY CLEARLY.) |