Visitors planning to see the sights of Indiana’s state parks may notice a slight spike in admission price if House Bill 1245 passes.

The bill would impose a surcharge of $1 to park entry fees, with the funds contributing to public safety efforts in the county where the park is located.

According to the bill, counties that contain government-owned lands experience tax revenue loss, making it difficult to maintain public services within the community. Annual pass holders would be exempt from the surcharge.

Scott Rudd, from the Brown County council, said that the council members have expressed unanimous support for the bill. Throughout his testimony, he stated that the state park sees over a million visitors a year and that first responders and other resources are often utilized on that property.

“We’re huge fans of the state park. We just want to apply the costs of those public safety responses not to our property taxpayers, which we’re one of the most senior counties in the state, we don’t want to apply those fees to them. We want to apply them to the folks consuming those public safety services,” he said.

Brown County Sheriff Brad Stogsdill also spoke in support of the bill.

“We love that natural resource that we have; however, it is very taxing on our public services, emergency service in particular,” he said.

Stogsdill has worked in law enforcement in Brown County for 36 years. He said that Brown County’s infrastructure isn’t big enough to support busy weekends at the park. Additionally, he said that the county only has two ambulances, which need to respond to calls from mountain bikers, a process that usually takes over an hour.

“Those resources are being used on the state park, that the county residents actually pay for those resources now have to have delayed responses for if something happens for them. So that’s where we’re asking for help,” he said.

He also added that the county has a difficult time retaining officers, often losing them to neighboring counties with more financial resources available.

The anticipated income for Brown County would be around $81,000 annually. Although not a substantial amount, it was emphasized that the bill is just one effort to approach the problem creatively, attempting to avoid a direct tax on residents of the county or state.

Dan Boritt from the Indiana Wildlife Federation spoke in support of the bill.

“We were really happy to see the carve out for annual pass holders,” he said. In addition to incentivizing people to consider buying passes, he said the fee will help support services that visitors utilize at the parks. Annual passes are $50 for Indiana residents and $70 for non-residents.

With slight variance for different parks, the entrance fee is currently $7 for Indiana vehicles and $9 for out-of-state vehicles.

Erin Bruce is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.