Deluge devastates state park system

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2. Very bad news for parks in Texas

Bush and his cronies while he was Governor managed to eliminate virtually all funding from general tax revenue of the state park system in order to cut taxes for the wealthy. Parks are now funded almost entirely by entrance and usage fees supplemented by a portion of hunting/fishing license fees and a sales tax on sporting goods. The fees charged by each park are not shared with other parks, so now only the most popular parks have adequate funding. Luckily, a bill requiring all of the sporting goods tax to go to parks and historic sites has just passed the state legislature, but this will still not be adequate in the long term or get the parks over the damages caused by the recent flooding. We still haven't come close to restoring parks from the fires that ravaged several parks a few summer's ago.