The Colorado State Parks Division will not receive $8.5 million in lottery funds until officials clear up accounting issues and explain why they want to build luxury cabins in a new park.
Great Outdoors Colorado has not released 2007 money to the parks because board members are concerned about the lack of information on how the lottery money is being spent. Board members are particularly concerned about the newly opened Cheyenne Mountain State Park in south Colorado Springs.
“How can you give someone new money if they can’t account for how they are spending it?” said GOCO’s executive director John Swartout. “The door to the park isn’t even open yet, and they want to build the Taj Mahal.”
The 1,700-acre park opened for day use in October, and workers are completing a visitors center, campsites and roads. State parks officials also want to spend nearly $40 million to further develop the park, including high-end amenities such as luxury cabins valued at $500,000 to $815,000, a $1.26 million lodge and a $4.3 million events center.
Parks director Lyle Laverty said the financial-documentation problems have been addressed and will be fixed in days. “We have taken a number of actions based on discussions we have had with GOCO. We are within days of having all of that cleaned up and behind us.”
Laverty said Colorado ranks 40th in the U.S. in how much legislature money goes to parks. He said lawmakers have directed the parks to be more self-sufficient.
Cabin commerce
The cabins are an attempt to attract visitors who spend a lot of money.
GOCO says it has been asking the state agency since 2004 for a full business plan for the park but only received a plan from 2002 this month.
GOCO’s board will discuss Cheyenne Mountain next month and whether money from lottery-ticket sales should go to creating revenue-generating amenities for the state parks.
“We understand the dire straits that the state parks (are) in with the loss of general-fund revenue over the years,” Swartout said. “But we are bound by what the constitution says we should spend the money on.”
So far, GOCO has provided $24 million for Cheyenne Mountain State Park since 2002, making it the largest GOCO investment since the lottery program began in 1992.
The GOCO trust fund, set up by voters 15 years ago, uses a portion of lottery proceeds to purchase open space, assist in funding local governments’ recreation programs, and help state parks and the Division of Wildlife.
Last year, GOCO received approximately $51 million in lottery funds. State parks got $10.6 million of that.
Every year, state parks officials present the GOCO board with a proposal for the coming year, and GOCO approves an amount of money. State parks officials hire contractors for the work, and GOCO later reimburses the agency after reviewing the bills.
Financial gaffes
However, GOCO has held up reimbursing state parks $5million for work in 2006 because financial documents have been filled with errors, discrepancies and inconsistencies.
“Several times over the last year, the accounting/finance staff of parks at all levels was unable to articulate basic accounting principles involving the GOCO bills,” a Feb. 1 GOCO memo says.
At a Feb. 7 GOCO committee meeting, state officials promised to fix the accounting processes.
Laverty said GOCO helped the state parks department build high-end cabins at Mueller State Park in Teller County, and they are consistently full and providing money for the operations at Mueller.
In 2002, development plans for Cheyenne Mountain park called for $8.6 million to be spent on trails, amenities and roads.
That figure now is $39.8 million – a 363 percent increase – according to a Jan. 30 draft of the executive summary of the latest business plan.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
