User Fees as a Component of Funding Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Programs

In 2008, statewide 2 percent of the total Oklahoma budget was satisfied by assessing a variety of user fees such as the commercial floatation device user fee and other user fees combined.1 Statewide, the average person paid $1,160 in user charges for all user fees.2 Natural resource and parks and recreation fees generated approximately $90 million in 2008. City and county park systems collected much of this revenue, but the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department collected $12 million from the 14 million users of state parks and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation charged $27 million to users, mainly for hunting and fishing licenses.3