California State Parks, Park Unit Costing Report

The Department of Parks and Recreation (Department) operates the State Park System which is comprised of 280 park units that deliver park and recreation services to the public.  The State Park System is organized into 22 districts, four of which include off-highway vehicle parks.  Many of the districts are further organized into 66 smaller groupings called sectors, and each sector is comprised of several park units.  This report is intended to provide an increased level of fiscal information to allow the public to gain a greater understanding of how departmental funding is allocated to all of the parks.

The Department’s fiscal tracking system allows districts to allocate expenditures to the park unit level.  However, some expenditures are shared among park units such as utility service contracts and staff resources.  For expenditures not allocated to the park unit level, the Department developed a cost allocation plan of how those costs should be distributed down to the various parks in the system.  The Department’s examination of the State Park System’s budget focused on the support budget expenditures—not capital outlay or local assistance expenditures—in order to capture those costs that best reflect the costs of operating individual parks within the State Park System.

This report includes the following:

Summary

California State Parks Unit Expenditure Summary Fiscal Year 2014-15 

California State Parks Unit Expenditure Detail Fiscal Year 2014-15