Blog 7

I wrote a post about the national park in blog 5 before. The main point of the post is that the government changes the budget allocated to the park without any hesitation because the state park fund has been among the first on the budgetary chopping block historically. Moreover, the main source of the funds for managing the state park in Texas is the tax on sporting goods, but since the introduction of the state sporting goods tax in 1993, more than half the funds originally intended for Texas state parks have been budgeted elsewhere.

Recently, I checked and read some articles from some suggested source like Austin American Statesman. Meanwhile, I found one interesting article about the state park. After two decades of legislative efforts to change that, lawmakers came a step closer Tuesday to permanently allocating the revenue to park agencies. The House gave initial approval to Senate measures that would send a state constitutional amendment allocating all sporting goods tax revenue to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission. This is great news because of inconsistent funding for state parks, park agencies have had a hard time to budget and plan future projects.

As the city grows, the importance of nature is also rapidly growing. I am so glad that the fund for managing the park has been clearly confirmed because I love natures, especially Austin's natures!