We purposely kept the One For The Parks proposal as lean and simple as possible to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. It's 110 words and this is what it says:

What It Says
"Right now, a system-wide backlog of unfunded maintenance, infrastructure repairs, employee housing needs and preservation work has grown to a level that threatens the future of America¹s National Parks. After three decades without adequate funding, billions of dollars are now needed to repair and restore the parks to an acceptable condition, according to the National Park Service.

One For The Parks proposes that 1% of the annual federal budget surplus be spent on funding the backlog of National Park needs until the necessary work is funded and completed.

Once the current backlog of unfunded work is eliminated, The One For The Parks program will be terminated having accomplished its goals."

What It Means
The most conservative estimate of the on-budget surplus over the next ten years is $838 billion. Less conservative estimates put the surplus as high as $1.9 trillion. Thanks to higher than expected revenue from April 2000 tax revenue and the continuing economic growth, both numbers will be going up in the report to be issued in early summer.

1% of $838 billion is $8.38 billion dollars. 1% of 1.9 trillion is 19 billion dollars. We have the money to fix our parks.

The current National Parks budget backlog as estimated by the National Park Service is:

$5.6 billion - Repairing roads, bridges, historic structures, employee housing, utilities.

1% of the surplus will pay for all of the above and still leave the other 99% of our federal surplus to spend on other national needs.

It doesn't get any simpler than that.