Government money grab
Park service wants to gouge visitors
It’s known as a trial balloon. It’s when somebody — often a government official — tosses out an idea to gauge the reception. To see how it “floats.” That’s what the National Park Service did this week when it announced a proposal to more than double user fees at some of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations — including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion — during peak vacation season. Under the plan, the price for entrance to 17 parks, located mostly in the West, would jump to $70 a vehicle, up from $30. Fees for individuals, motorcyclists and tour operators would also skyrocket.
Park service officials argue the increases are necessary to pay for neglected maintenance and infrastructure projects. They estimate the new policy would bring in an extra $68 million.
But the park service had barely ignited the burner of this helium craft before efforts to shoot it down commenced.
“If there isn’t a question or consideration of equitable access to a lot of communities,” Jose Gonzalez of Latino Outdoors told USA Today, “it’s only going to increase the disparity in terms of who is able to access our national parks and public lands.”
Others said the Interior Department should seek the proper appropriations from Congress. “If this administration wants to support national parks,” Theresa Pierno of the National Parks Foundation said in a statement, “it needs to walk the walk and work with Congress to address the maintenance backlog.”
No doubt, the park service has a long wish list of “projects” on the drawing board. What government agency doesn’t? Problem is, the park service has trouble separating the wheat from the chafe. A 2013 report compiled by Tom Coburn, a Republican senator from Oklahoma at the time, found that despite the maintenance buildup, the park service “continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring thousands of addition acres of new park land that has drawn little interest from the public.”
The park service proposal amounts to price gouging, pure and simple. If a private-sector operation tried something similar, Congress would convene hearings. Members of the public have until Nov. 23 to weigh in on the money grab — parkplanning.nps.gov/proposedpeakseasonfeerates — and should do so. This is one trial balloon that deserves to quickly crash and burn.
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Fax 702-383-4676 billions of dollars on the unnecessary navigator program. And as the RJ pointed out, navigators actually had very little impact — less than 1 percent of all those who enrolled in Obamacare used a navigator.
Navigators were not licensed professionals. They could not compare plans and make recommendations, break down co-pays and deductibles, explain how co-insurance works, analyze provider networks, help a person if they had a claim or billing problem, etc. Insurance brokers do all of this with clients every day.
We all know that there are strong opinions out there, pro and con, about Obamacare. Without question, this boondoggle called the “navigator” program was a massive “con.” What a waste of money, resources and time.
The writer is media relations chairman of the Clark County Association of Health Underwriters. flaws in MGM’S security system that were revealed to him by MGM personnel. They include job dissatisfaction, inadequate training, poor equipment and “undermanned and underpaid” personnel.
Yet despite noting these conditions as an “eye-opener,” Mr. Root gave readers only a one-eyed glance by focusing exclusively on MGM properties. Anyone with a smidgen of sense knows that this killer’s methods could have succeeded at any Strip casino with an event overlook.
That does not remove MGM’S need to reassess its security operational and administrative capabilities. But it does lead to a larger question of security in Nevada casinos in general, and one that Mr. Root ignored. Security is only one cost of doing business. In our nation’s increasingly at-risk public gatherings, however, the bottom line for security operations throughout Las Vegas has got to change, along with myriad personnel and best practices issues.
Deterring future acts of violence upon our citizenry presents a formidable challenge. Sadly, we can not always guarantee a good outcome. Yet to do otherwise exploits the public, exploits security personnel and is a disservice to all affected.
And Mr. Root should remember that politicizing the issue is also a disservice.