Pay for Parks

The AP looks at Prop21, which will ask voters to pay an additional $18 on annual vehicle registration fees to help fund the state's parks system. "It's a tax on motorists for a totally unrelated service," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which is among the groups opposing the measure," tells the AP. On the other side: The trails are in shambles, and "the gradual shutdown of the state parks system is costing Californians jobs -- and not just park employees and contractors, but the private businesses situated near parks," says a pro-Prop21 editorial in the California Bakersfield." [California Bakersfield]