IPA Advocacy Efforts Continue
By John Goss & Tom Hohman
SUMMER LEGISLATIVE STUDY COMMITTEE
Before the 2025 Indiana State Legislature adjourned last April, they set up a special summer study committee to evaluate the economic impact of public lands for outdoor recreation in Indiana. After hearing public testimony, including from Indiana Parks Alliance, they approved a final report that included the following funding recommendations:
- Increase the biennial construction and maintenance budget for state parks, as well as for other DNR divisions and for the State Museum and Historic Sites to levels similar to the inflation-adjusted 2007 spending levels (the last year of a sustainable budget.)
- Establish a dedicated source of conservation funding to maintain and enhance facilities at state owned public lands for recreation.
- Increase financial support for the President Benjamin Harrison Conservation Trust for the purchase of new public land.
- Research and implement a system to collect visitor fees at state fish and wildlife areas.
All of these are solutions for which IPA has been advocating for years, and which we encouraged the committee to include in their report.
In addition to our testimony before the committee, IPA recruited representatives of chamber of commerce and tourism organizations from areas whose economies are directly impacted by state park visitors. These representatives testified about the importance of these visitors to their local economies, and were a big part of the reason why the committee recommended increases in operation and maintenance funding.
Of particular impact was testimony from the Owen County Chamber of Commerce where McCormick’s Creek State Park is located. They reported on the measured decline in economic impact in the town of Spencer after the destruction of the state park campground by a tornado in 2023.
The Indiana Parks Alliance will continue communications with these local organizations, and will encourage them to actively join IPA and other conservation partners in the Indiana Conservation Alliance as we lobby for implementation of the committee recommendations in the next DNR budget.
CONSERVATION DAY AT THE STATEHOUSE
Part of these continuing efforts will be the next Conservation Day at the Statehouse, to be held on February 3, 2026. This will be an opportunity for IPA and partner organizations to gather in the Statehouse and interact with legislators about the importance of funding conservation projects in the upcoming budget.
STATE PARK AND NATURE PRESERVES FUNDING ISSUES
Indiana State Parks and Nature Preserves 2025-26 budget woes continue as Governor Braun’s austerity policy mandated a 10% reduction in the operating budget for the current fiscal year (starting last July 1.) These cuts affected all state agency budgets. The Strategic Spending Reduction Plan approved by the State Budget Committee for DNR permanently cut over 100 full-time DNR positions dependent on the General Fund.
These across-the-board cuts hamstring parks and nature preserves staff and cut seasonal employment by at least 30% at every state park property. Without staff, visitor services as well as routine building maintenance and trail upkeep are suffering. While trails are the most used facilities in state parks, cuts in funding and staffing have almost eliminated work on maintaining trail signs, resurfacing eroded trails, and rebuilding wooden boardwalks, bridges, and stairways. In some cases trails have had to be closed because of lack of funds to maintain these structures.
In previous years, the Indiana Parks Alliance documented the extent and severity of deterioration of buildings and structures on state park properties and advocated for $100 million in funding to be added to the DNR budget for this deferred maintenance. Governor Holcomb eventually agreed with this need and added those funds to his budget which were then approved by the legislature. Unfortunately, we have not learned our lesson, and the budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 did not include sufficient maintenance funding.