A PRUDENT individual or family on a limited income and budget knows just how foolish and reckless it would be to create a new major expense when it’s a major challenge just to pay existing bills. Take the purchase of a new vehicle, for instance. A person in the right mind would not add a second car to the house fleet when low revenue prevents full payment on the first one.

Why can’t state government follow the same advice and avoid taking on more debt when it is unable to collect enough revenue to cover existing debt?

We’ve asked this before and now state government is showing taxpayers just how fiscally irresponsible it can be. It’s started construction of the all-new 1,040-acre Don Carter State Park in Hall County. And what a nice facility it will be for the Department of Natural Resources. Its features will include 48 campsites with water and electricity, eight two-bedroom cottages, visitors center, playgrounds, boat ramps and a beach and bathhouse. The park is being developed in a cove off the Chattahoochee River at a cost of around $12 million.

It will certainly be a beautiful facility. There’s no doubt about that given the hilly, forested countryside.

But why is the state Department of Natural Resources building a whole-new park, adding to its list of debts in Northeast Georgia, when it’s telling coastal communities that it is unable to afford the cost of fully operating Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation in Brunswick and Fort Morris in Liberty County?

Why is it investing millions of dollars in a new park when it says it doesn’t have the money to reopen the public swimming pools at Crooked River State Park in Camden County and Laura S. Walker State Park in Ware County?

It doesn’t make sense. Nor is it fair to the coastal region, where tourism remains a critical means of economic sustenance to businesses, as well to the residents employed by them, and to the state in general. Cutting the operation of Hofwyl and Fort Morris to just half the week is cutting their ability to generate revenue.

An explanation for this — building a new park when the Department of Natural Resources is unable to afford what it already has — would be interesting to hear. Perhaps the state delegation will pose this very question to DNR officials and members of its board in the months leading up to the reconvening of the state General Assembly in January.