The cost of playing tennis or golf at most BREC facilities has gone up with the dawn of the new year. So has the price of participating on a BREC athletic team and the admission fee at the Baton Rouge Zoo.
BREC Commissioners approved those and other usage fee increases in December at their final meeting of 2015 to help offset operational cost increases, a BREC spokeswoman says.
“Each year, we evaluate all of our programs to make sure they are meeting the needs of the community and that they are priced correctly,” BREC Spokeswoman Cheryl Michelet says. “As part of that process, we evaluate the local market of similar service providers and we look nationally at other similarly situated park agencies to make fee and programmatic comparisons.”
Some of the fee increases are relatively small. Zoo admission increased just 6% to $8.75 from $8.25 for an adult ticket. Children’s admission fees increased 9% to $5.75 from $5.25.
But most of the increases are more significant.
Tennis court rental fees have increased 25% to $5 an hour from $4 an hour. Golf course green and cart rental fees have increased, on average, between 14% and 16% at most courses. Per team entry fees for softball, t-ball, coaches pitch, basketball, and flag football have increased more than 14% to $200 from $175.
Fees have also been added to cover the cost of new amenities and programs. Liberty Lagoon Waterpark will have a $5 fee for its new surfing simulator machine, the FlowRider. Floor hockey, also new this year, has a $40 per player fee.
“Just as with any business, the cost of supplies, instructors, staff, maintenance and construction materials continue to rise so you’ll see us adjust our prices as necessary during the budget process at the end of the year,” Michelet says. “We strive to keep our programs and facilities affordable for the entire community while also balancing the need to offer new and innovative programs and facilities with less of a burden on the taxpayer.”
As with most recreation departments around the country, BREC’s programs lose money each year. As Daily Report reported in October, an audit of BREC’s books in 2014 showed expenses expenses increased 7% to $54 million from $50.5 million, while revenues increased just 5% to $68.4 million from $64.9 million.
Most of the operational shortfall is funded through a variety of dedicated millages. Recreational programs in 2014, for example, cost $14.6 million to operate but only brought in $3.4 million in fees, so the expenses were offset by more than $9.2 million in tax revenues.
Michelet says BREC is trying to gradually move away from its overdependence on tax revenues and create more self-sustaining programs, which is one of the reasons for the recent fee hikes.
“We are moving toward the implementation of a cost-recovery model for our agency, which will require some of our programs to become more self-sufficient than others as they provide more of an individual benefit than a community benefit,” she says.
Later this year, voters will be asked to approve a 3.96 millage renewal to help fund maintenance and operations.
See a full listing of the BREC fee increases.
—Stephanie Riegel
