David Carpenter: Why is there any fee to get into Yosemite?
Re “Yosemite is still a bargain at $30” (Opinions, Nov. 16): Yosemite National Park is not a business run for profit, but a taxpayer-supported place for rest and relaxation. Therefore, the entrance fee should be nominal, if any at all.
Some visitors cannot even afford the $20 fee, much less the new $30 fee. If they were visiting a business instead of a public park, then they would be hunting for a “bargain,” as columnist Dick Hagerty terms it. But, Yosemite is not a business, and the National Park Services’ charging high fees to enter is nothing but “double-dipping” – they are taking money from the taxpayer on both ends, which should be illegal.
Perhaps the federal government is diverting the taxpayers’ money to create wars in the Middle East every few years and needs to raise park fees to cover the shortfall. In any case what they are doing is punishing the taxpayer for their own self-serving ends. Hagerty is one-sided and ill-informed.
David W. Carpenter, Mariposa
This story was originally published November 21, 2014 at 10:02 AM with the headline "David Carpenter: Why is there any fee to get into Yosemite?."