State parks officials may be forced to close seven state parks due to a $12 million budget gap, the Texas Tribune reported yesterday. Texas Parks and Wildlife requested an additional $18.9 million from the sporting goods sales tax to keep all 91 parks operational, but preliminary House and Senate budgets released Tuesday only allotted an additional $6.9 million. The sales tax funds would be in addition to the department’s base budget of $507 million.
Parks and Wildlife executive director Carter Smith told the Star-Telegram it “is simply way too premature to talk about park closures…This is simply the first serve in a long tennis game.” No specific parks were mentioned; the state’s 10 most popular parks, according to the department, include:
Garner SP
Inks Lake SP
Dinosaur Valley SP
Pedernales Falls SP
Balmorhea SP
Guadalupe River SP
Enchanted Rock SNA
McKinney Falls SP
Ray Roberts Lake SP
Mustang Island SP
Nearly all of the most popular parks are located in the central part of the state; Ray Roberts Lake is the only North Texas park on the list.
