Date of Graduation

1986

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Considerable change during the past half century has occurred in philosophies relating to the use of tax monies for local leisure services. In recent years there has been a tendency towards self-generated revenue by park and recreation systems in an attempt to provide more amenities for the public, but with little or no increase in allocated financial support. In this study the legal status of the various systems studied was viewed to have a considerable effect on the tendency to self-generate revenue. It was felt that the more autonomous or policy-making bodies would self-generate a greater portion of their operating budget revenue than the nonautonomous or advisory systems. The study also made a comparison between larger budgets and smaller budgets as to the percentage of self-generated operating budget revenue. Concurrent with the study, certain types of facilities or programs were identified as being significant producers of revenue. The study involved 29 local public leisure-service delivery systems throughout West Virginia. A questionnaire was utilized to determine the degree of autonomy of the various systems participating and to identify operating budget revenue for fiscal year 1984-85 with emphasis on self-generated revenue sources. A jury of recognized authorities was selected to categorize the participating systems as to their degree of autonomy. By using the Mann-Whitney U-Test to determine the median difference of groups, the following conclusions were reached: (a) the more autonomous the park and recreation system, the greater the degree of self-generated revenue produced, (b) the per capita allocation by governing bodies to the park and recreation system is significantly greater for those advisory systems than for the policy-making systems, (c) there is no significant difference of per capita budget amounts between the advisory and policy-making systems, (d) there is no significant difference between the percentage of self-generated revenue of those systems with larger budgets versus those systems with smaller budgets. Concurrent with the study a number of programs and facilities were identified as being typical generators of revenue. These included program fees, swimming pool revenue, and picnic shelter rentals for all systems. Larger systems generated considerable revenue from such sources as ice rinks, golf courses, and special facilities.

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