Emails, Jeffrey Olson, public affairs officer, National Park Service, June 15-16 and 24, 2016

On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 4:30 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) wrote:

Thanks for visiting. I will be verifying the budget for the city of Austin and would welcome elaboration from you on the figures relied on by the director and why he compared the service’s budget to the budget for the city here.

You told me the f16 NPS budget of about $3 billion continues on fairly flat budgets and the agency has $11.9 billion in backlogged maintenance, half in roads and bridges, half in other infrastructure. You said fees are expected to go up at some of the 125 parks that charge fees though there are 414 parks and there are no plans to create fees at the remaining parks.

g.

W. Gardner Selby

Reporter / News

Austin American-Statesman

PolitiFact Texas

4:22 p.m.

June 15, 2016

The National Park Service has about 22,000 employees

125 of the 411 parks in the national park system charge an entry fee. Most of those parks are raising entry fees. Attachment shows how much of an increased was approved in Washington NPS Headquarters. Parks may implement some, all or none of the approved increase. You'll have to check with parks to see exactly how they acted and if their increases have taken effect. We expect most have or will be this year.

The national park system that encompasses 84 million acres. We have 28 different kinds of parks in the system. Most people are familiar with national parks of which there are 59.

NPS total budget authority since 2008 (Congressional appropriations, in parenthesis, are the largest part of our annual budget; the remainder comes from miscellaneous sources like fees and donations.)

2008 - $2.8 billion ($2.4 billion in Congressional approps)

2009 - $3.7 billion (includes Recovery Act funds) ($3.28 billion in Congressional approps)

2010 - $3.16 billion ($2.76 billion in Congressional approps)

2011 - $3 billion ($2.61 billion in Congressional approps)

2012 - $3 billion ($2.58 billion in Congressional approps)

2013 - $3.19 billion ($2.77 billion in Congressional approps)

2014 - $3.06 billion ($2.56 billion in Congressional approps)

2015 - $3.24 billion ($2.61 billion in Congressional approps)

2016 - $3.4 billion ($2.85 billion in Congressional approps)

From: Olson, Jeffrey

Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 10:30 AM

To: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin)

Subject: Re: Texas reporter again

You can say that in preparation for the hearing, the Director was looking for another government entity's budget with which to compare the NPS. When I asked him, at your behest, where he got the Austin figures he said, "I just looked up the budgets of various cities online."

It may be difficult to compare Austin to the NPS. While the city serves 900,000 residents, the NPS serves more than 300 million visitors each year, many of them from Austin, no doubt.

Jeff Olson

3:53 p.m.

June 24, 2016

The NPS budget for FY2016 is approximately $3.4 billion. The $268 million for federal roads in national parks is part of the US Department of Transportation budget.