Although there is no Cannon Mountain lease bill before the Legislature -- and an "avalanche" of opposition helped kill the lease bill last year -- there's still lease talk going on in Concord.
In this Union-Leader story from today, which noted the state treasurer's common sense recommendation that the state use Cannon revenue to pay down the Cannon Mountain Capital Improvement Fund's accumulated deficit of $372,000, state Sen. Jeb Bradley discussed leasing.
Bradley said that while he does not plan to file a lease bill, he believes that the state should consider whether it should remain in the ski business. Significantly, the senator told the newspaper that he has backed off from leasing in the face of "strident opposition" both in Concord and the Franconia region. "I was climbing uphill with an avalanche coming down at me," he told the newspaper.
State Treasurer Catherine Provencher told the newspaper that Cannon operates at a profit and that Cannon revenue funds the rest of the state park system. "Our parks fund was intended to be self-supporting, so I have to say Cannon and the Hampton meters pay for an awful lot of our system of parks that we can all enjoy," she told the newspaper.
"The New Hampshire model is that we have a few parks that support the rest of the parks system," state Parks and Recreation Director Phil Bryce told the newspaper. The state is fortunate to have "special places like Franconia Notch State Park, like Hampton Beach ... fantastic places, so they can generate that revenue to support the rest of the parks system."
This year Cannon will send $650,000 to the state park system and another $50,000 to state Fish and Game to help fund rescues.
