Just a smidgen, perhaps only a vague shadow of a smidgen, a pittance, a number buried deep in the monied mists of Capitol Hill.

The National Park Service receives less than 1-15th of 1 percent of the federal budget, according to park advocates.

Washington DC arithmetic is never as clean as we’d like.  Ancient Sumerians and Egyptians had a better handle on numbers.  These days it seems as if a Republic Congressman tells you four plus three equals seven, there will be a Democratic to dispute this.  (Or vice versa.)

In any event, The National Park Service does not disclose detailed annual operating budgets for its smaller parks, such as The Great Basin National Park.

It chooses not to burden citizens with what it may consider minutia, but which some of us might find helpful in understanding why the financial gas tanks of our National Parks are stuck on empty.

We do know from NPS data that the Great Basin National Park has racked up $30 million in deferred maintenance and repairs.  We’re told the park “has an estimated $2.6 minimum annual routine maintenance requirements.  Asset condition will further deteriorate if the annual routine maintenance is not addressed.

“Infrastructure investment needs may also include modernization and renewal to address safety, code compliance, visitor capacity and other park requirements.”

According to the Great Basin National Park Foundation…

“This Park, which has a $3 million congressionally funded budget, has a tremendous multiplier economic impact on the surrounding communities. Great Basin National Park is an economic engine positively impacting a remote part of Nevada that desperately needs revenue diversity and employment security.”

This multiplier effect is significant, perhaps even borderline remarkable.  The National Park Service estimates the economic output of the Great Basin National Park at $22 million.

That’s a 7 to 1 return on our investment as taxpayers.

And it seems to fall on Washington ears that aren’t simply deaf, but dismissive and disengaged when it comes to the Great Basin National Park.