February 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 14

RESEARCH
How Strained Budgets Led to Maintenance
Deferments and Capital Project Delays
By Kevin Roth

ark and recreation leaders have shared with us in one-on-one conversations, exchanges on NRPA Connect and their NRPA Parks
Snapshot survey responses over the past year about the detrimental financial impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
and subsequent recession. Local and state governments, suffering from falling tax receipts and rising expenses resulting from their pandemic response,
have squeezed budgets that have led to cuts in services.

Half of the park and recreation
agencies that responded to the
December Parks Snapshot survey
(nrpa.org/ParksSnapshot) indicated that they had reduced their previously budgeted 2021 operating
spending, with a median reduction
of 20 percent.
The cuts have gone beyond those
made to operations budgets. Among
the most common budget cut strategies cited by respondents to a midApril 2020 Parks Snapshot Survey
focused on capital budgets. These
included deferring or canceling capital projects and ramping down or
deferring maintenance projects.
A third of park and recreation
leaders indicated in the December
Parks Snapshot survey that they
had reduced 2021 capital budgets
in response to the current financial challenges. Thirty-six percent
of agencies located in large metropolitan areas were pulling back
on capital spending, compared to
30 percent of agencies located in
small metropolitan and rural areas. The typical agency slashed its
capital budgets by 37 percent, with
1 in 6 agencies cutting capital expenditures by at least half.
At first glance, it appears that
capital spending at local park and
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Parks & Recreation

recreation agencies may be holding firm so far - but the keywords
are " so far. " Per the U.S. Census
Bureau, public-sector construction
spending on parks/camps, neighborhood centers, social centers and
sports facilities totaled $10.288 billion during the first 10 months of
2020. This was up a robust inflationadjusted 8.8 percent over publicsector spending during the same
months in 2019.
History, however, suggests that
capital spending trends tend to lag
major financial events. Consider
the years surrounding the Great Recession. In 2007, public-sector construction spending on parks/camps,
neighborhood centers, social centers and sports facilities amounted
to $8.591 billion. Spending rose
an inflation-adjusted 6.4 percent
during the first year of the recession
in 2008 and suffered only a relatively modest 0.9 percent slip in 2009.
But the story changed quickly after
that with two consecutive years of
spending declines (-11.9 percent in
2010 and another -17.6 in 2011).
Construction spending did not recover until 2017.
There is a tremendous price for
canceling or deferring capital investments. Park and recreation agencies

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with aging infrastructure and amenities in disrepair will struggle to deliver
the benefits of parks and recreation to
all members of the community. The
NRPA research team used NRPA
Park Metrics data to estimate that
local park and recreation agencies
have more than $60 billion of deferred maintenance. This data helped
support the permanent authorization
of the Land and Water Conservation
Fund (LWCF) last year.
The need to chip away at deferred
projects with limited financial resources also can constrain agencies
from investing in new park and recreation infrastructure and amenities. Growing populations with diverse needs and desires make these
investments more critical.
The pandemic has demonstrated
that parks and recreation is essential
for healthy and resilient communities. This includes the more than 190
million people across the nation who
went to a park, trail or other open
space in the first three months of the
pandemic (nrpa.org/Engagement)
or the many ways park and recreation professionals served in their
communities' emergency response.
But deferring maintenance and delaying critical capital investments
will make it harder for park and recreation professionals and their agencies to continue serving in this vital
role. Deferring maintenance and delaying capital projects only lead to a
bigger bill down the road.
Kevin Roth is NRPA's Vice President of
Research, Evaluation and Technology
(kroth@nrpa.org).

http://www.nrpa.org/ParksSnapshot http://www.nrpa.org/Engagement

February 2021 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2021 - Parks & Recreation