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[RC] CA State Parks; what I found out - k s swigartTruman said: I seriously doubt that anyone would shut down a money maker ?- not even CA politicians. Actually, business people "shut down" money makers all the time because few people know how to effectively do management accounting (figuring out just what revenue and expenses are associated with a particular business activity).? Mostly because it is really difficult to do. It is to the point that CA can't worry about collateral damage to ?local economies that depend on the parks - they are broke and ?broke big time. And this is a perfect example of how Truman, at least, doesn't know how to do management accounting.? A substantial portion of the State's revenue is dependent upon the health of "local economies" so the thing the state should be worrying about most is the extent to which the shut down of the State Parks will damage local economies and thereby damage the state's revenue base. Such things as state parks do cost money. There are all sorts of ?overhead cost other than what it takes to pay the rangers and ?sweep the floors in the visitor center. And there are all sorts of revenue sources associated with the parks other than the fees collected at the visitor's center and the campgrounds.? For instance (and to make this endurance related), if Malibu Creek State Park is closed so that the Malibu Endurance Ride doesn't happen this fall, then not only will the state lose the revenue it will collect by charging a fee for using the park, but it will also lose all the revenue it would have collected from the gasoline tax it will collect ffrom all the people who buy gas to drive their rig to the ride....which is really difficult to quantify (which is why cost accounting is so hard to do). Not to mention the fact that shutting down the state parks is unlikely to reduce the "overhead" costs associated with owning the parks; mostly all they will save is the money it takes to pay some of (they cannot get rid of all of them) the rangers and sweep the floors in the visitor center. The state might really be shooting itself in the foot on this one as operating the state parks very well might be a much bigger revenue generator than they are an expense.? I don't know because I don't have anywhere near enough information to do a realistic or accurate management accounting of it (and there may be no way to know), but I do know that "worrying about the effect of collateral damage to local economies that depend on the parks" IS absolutely essential in the decision making process. Tourism is a huge business in California and where the state gets a substantial portion of its revenue, shutting down a big hunk of the tourism business that actually costs very little to operate may not be the smartest thing to do.? And Truman is living in a fantasy land (and I am the one who lives up the road from Disney Land) if he thinks that "CA politicians" may not be as poor at management accounting as he is. Management accounting is REALLLLLLLY hard if you have a complicated "business" structure like and entire state's economy with all its interrelated elements.? There may be some substantial "unintended consequences" associated with closing the parks.? Politicians are really good at missing those. The state would do better to try to figure out ways to cut the expenses of operating the parks without closing them...or to charge more for people to use them, so they become bigger revenue generators. kat Orange County, Calif. :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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