Senator Birkholz’s statement is as follows:
We very proudly passed key reform legislation over to the House. We worked with many interest groups and citizens from all over the state to work on this package. We held multiple hearings, worked hard to forge agreements on a laundry list of issues, and in short, we did our homework to get something positive done for our parks system, for our local economies, and more importantly, for the people of this state. However, instead the House Democrat leadership chose to abandon our solution and keep alive a funding system that we know is broken.
So what we have to vote on here tonight is a three-month extension of a fee structure that we know does not work. The only reason that I am supporting this is because Speaker of the House of Representatives Andy Dillon gave me his commitment that the three-month extension would be just that—a three-month extension of an old, outdated fee system.
I am preparing another bill that is exactly the same as it left the Senate here. We will begin to work on that in January, and I hope that you will join me at that time in passing a good bipartisan, bicameral package that will rescue our state parks system from another year of woeful funding. I ask that you vote for this House-passed version now.