North Carolina plugged its parks' staffing gap. It cut the fund that fixes them by $2 million.
Summary
North Carolina State Parks cut seasonal staffing by roughly half this spring while operating under a stalled state budget, its director says, against a $142 million backlog of planned repairs. The budget the General Assembly finally ratified in July adds $4.7 million to patch that staffing shortfall, and in the same document cuts $2 million from the trust fund that pays for the repairs, dropping its state appropriation from $28 million to $26 million a year.
A budget delay, then a staffing cut
North Carolina's two-year budget cycle calls for the General Assembly to adjust the second year's appropriations before that fiscal year begins on July 1. It didn't happen on time in 2026. Agencies spent the spring operating on the prior year's certified budget, without the funding adjustments that were supposed to arrive. At NC State Parks, that gap showed up as a staffing cut: Director Brian Strong told North Carolina Public Radio in May that the division had "had to cut our seasonal staff by about 50%" — lifeguards, park attendants, and maintenance workers who keep swimming areas open and campgrounds running through the summer. Some swim areas closed; maintenance slowed everywhere except safety-related work. Strong also put a number on the division's separate, longer-running problem: a $142 million backlog of planned maintenance projects — not routine upkeep, but the larger repair and renovation work the system has queued up and can't yet fund.
What the trust fund actually pays for
The system's dedicated repair channel is the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF), created by the legislature in 1994 and funded by a General Fund appropriation plus personalized license-plate fees. State law, N.C.G.S. §143B-135.56, locks in how it's split: 65% to the state parks system and DuPont State Recreational Forest for capital projects and repairs, 30% to matching grants for local governments, 5% to coastal beach access, and 3% to administration. In fiscal year 2023-24, the fund's own annual report recorded $31.77 million in total revenue and distributed $18.80 million of it directly to the State Parks System for capital projects, repairs, and land acquisition.
View data as table
| State Parks System | $18.80M | 61% |
|---|---|---|
| Local government grants | $9.25M | 30% |
| Coastal access program | $1.59M | 5% |
| DuPont State Recreational Forest | $1.23M | 4% of state-parks share |
| Administrative reserve | $0.91M | 3% |
The budget that finally passed
The General Assembly ratified its FY2026-27 appropriations — Senate Bill 257, Session Law 2026-41 — on July 7, 2026, roughly seven weeks after Strong's interview. The conference report on the bill shows the legislature knew exactly what the spring's shortfall had cost: a line item titled "Parks Temporary Employment" adds $4.7 million recurring "to address the shortfall in funding for temporary and seasonal employment at the State Parks," bringing that budget line to a revised $8.8 million for the year. A second item adds $2.6 million more for personnel-cost shortfalls — overtime, holiday pay, and law-enforcement separation allowances — and a third eliminates five receipt-supported administrative positions in the Office of the Secretary and Parks Administration.
The same bill cuts the other side of the ledger. Item 215 of the conference report reduces PARTF grant funding by $2 million — $1 million recurring, $1 million non-recurring — stating plainly that "the revised net General Fund appropriation for this purpose is $26 million in 2026-27," down from the $28 million recurring appropriation the fund reported for 2023-24. The division's Requirements, Receipts, and Net Appropriation structure for the year shows how much of its budget depends on the General Fund versus what parks earn on their own:
View data as table
| General Fund appropriation | $113.51M | taxpayer-funded |
|---|---|---|
| Parks' own receipts (fees) | $18.60M | self-generated revenue |
| Total requirements | $132.11M | FY2026-27 |
The math on the backlog
Set the numbers side by side and the mismatch is clear. The $142 million backlog is roughly 7.6 times the $18.8 million PARTF sent to the State Parks System for capital work in fiscal year 2023-24 — meaning at that pace, clearing the current backlog alone, with no new deferred projects added, would take the better part of a decade. It's also more than 16 times the $8.8 million now earmarked for seasonal staffing, the fix that addressed this spring's immediate crisis but does nothing for the repair queue.
View data as table
| Maintenance-project backlog | $142.0M | director's figure, May 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| State Parks System PARTF capital allocation | $18.80M | FY2023-24 |
| Temporary/seasonal staffing appropriation | $8.80M | FY2026-27, revised |
The takeaway
- The spring staffing cut and the repair backlog are two different funding shortfalls. The 50% seasonal-staff cut came from an unadjusted operating budget; the $142 million backlog is a separate, longer-running capital problem that no single budget line addresses.
- The new budget fixes one and worsens the other. Lawmakers added $4.7 million to patch seasonal staffing after the fact, then cut $2 million from PARTF, the fund that finances the repairs behind the backlog.
- Even fully funded, PARTF isn't sized for the backlog. At the state parks system's most recent annual capital allocation, clearing $142 million in planned projects would take roughly seven years of that funding stream alone.
The $142 million backlog figure comes from on-the-record reporting quoting NC State Parks Director Brian Strong rather than a linkable state filing; the budget figures above come from the North Carolina General Assembly's own conference report and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund's 2023-24 annual report, two independent primary documents.
Sources
- NC Division of Parks and Recreation, Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Annual Report 2023-24 — total PARTF revenue ($31,769,893), the statutory revenue split, and the distribution to the State Parks System, DuPont State Recreational Forest, local government grants, coastal access, and administration. ncleg.gov
- NC General Assembly, Joint Conference Committee Report on the Current Operations Appropriations Act of 2026 (Senate Bill 257 / Session Law 2026-41, ratified July 7, 2026) — the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund's $2 million cut (Item 215), the $4.7 million seasonal-employment shortfall fix (Item 209), the $2.6 million personnel-cost shortfall (Item 208), the five eliminated positions (Item 210), and the division's total FY2026-27 Requirements, Receipts, and Net Appropriation. webservices.ncleg.gov
- WHQR / North Carolina Public Radio, North Carolina State Parks cut half its seasonal positions due to inflation, low fee revenue (May 18, 2026; corrected May 21, 2026) — Director Brian Strong's on-the-record figures for the seasonal staffing cut (~50%) and the maintenance-project backlog ($142 million), and the correction attributing the shortfall primarily to the state's delayed budget. whqr.org
- North Carolina General Statutes §143B-135.56 — the statutory 65/30/5/3 allocation formula governing how PARTF revenue is distributed among the state parks system, local government grants, coastal access, and administration. ncleg.gov
- NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund program page — background on PARTF's 1994 creation, funding mechanism, and administration by the NC Division of Parks and Recreation. ncparks.gov
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
North Carolina's state parks run on two separate rivers of money: what visitors pay at the gate, and what the General Assembly appropriates from tax revenue. This spring, with the legislature months late on a budget, the division cut its seasonal workforce by roughly half. This month, the General Assembly finally passed one — and used it to add money for seasonal staff while cutting money for repairs, in the same bill.