Vermont officials want more flexibility in how they set certain fees at state parks, but critics of the plan worry the change would hit visitors in their wallets. The current process to alter fees takes months and requires lawmakers’ approval. Under the proposed rule change, officials from the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation — which manages Vermont’s 55 state parks — would be able to more easily change prices for everything from campsite rentals to annual park passes in response to demand. “What we are planning to do is to be able to set prices more regularly and to provide the public with a 90-day notice of what those prices would be,” Commissioner Danielle Fitzko said. The department gets about 75 percent of its revenue from entrance fees, with the balance coming from leases to ski resorts and the state general fund. The department has done everything it can to avoid raising fees, Fitzko said, including cutting $1 million out of its current budget. Overall, though, park use is up, Fitzko said, and maintenance needs are mounting. A third-party fee analysis from 2023 recommended the state implement “demand-based pricing” that would allow the state to adjust prices upward at parks with high demand or lowered as an incentive to increase attendance at less-used parks. That could open the door to Vermonters being forced to pay higher fees with little notice and give them far less say than they have now, said Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees, which advocates for the restoration of public forests in New England. “The state is proposing to turn state parks into Ticketmaster,” Porter said. Under the proposed changes, the state could increase rates at the most popular state parks, making one of the last affordable vacation options for Vermonters less affordable. No changes will take place this year, but there are no limits on how high the rates could go in future years, Porter noted. “They could just forevermore give out a 90-day notice that they are going to change prices, and that’s that,” Porter said. But the notion that parks would adopt “dynamic pricing” models such as those used for concert tickets or Uber rides is untrue, Fitzko said. There is no plan for admission prices to fluctuate in real-time based on factors such as the weather, she said. “That doesn’t make sense for us,” Fitzko said. “We want people to know what the prices are well in advance so they can plan.” A more likely example of a change would be to provide a discount for midweek camping, when demand is often lower, she said. The public comment period for the new rules ends June 11. More information on the proposed changes is available here. The post Vermont Officials Want to Be Able to Change State Park Fees More Easily appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less