Topeka ? Imagine pulling into your favorite state park in Kansas and the park ranger looks at your Kansas license plate and motions for you to drive on in without having to pay an entry fee.

Free vehicle entry to any Kansas state park would be a reality under a proposal being pushed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ administration.

Of course, there is no free lunch.

The unlimited free park entry would be made possible by a $5 increase in annual motor vehicle registration fees.

Even so, the idea has attracted the interest of many advocates of the state park system.

“Every Kansan will have free access,” Wildlife and Parks Secretary Mike Hayden said. “Nonresidents will continue to pay the park entrance fee.”

Currently, daily vehicle permits in Kansas state parks are $6.50 from April 1 through Sept. 30, and $5.50 from Oct. 1 through March 31.

Dan Ward, executive director of the Kansas Wildlife Federation, said his group was supportive.

“Anything that makes the state park system more accessible, we’re definitely for it,” Ward said.

The proposal is based on one that was adopted last year in Montana, except there a $4 increase in motor vehicle registration was implemented.

Doug Monger, Montana state parks director, said the program had been a great success.

He said he had made an extra effort to go to the parks and get feedback from people.

“The common question I get is, ‘Why didn’t you do this years ago?'” he said.

Like the Kansas park system, the Montana system’s share of general revenue funds from the state was shrinking annually.

Monger said Montana was on the verge of shutting down parks and laying off employees before instituting the new system.

“The handwriting was on the wall,” Monger said.

Now, he said, with the increase in vehicle registration fees going to parks, the system has experienced about a 15 percent increase in revenue, which has helped Montana catch up on deferred maintenance and start up some new programs.

“I’d like to think that I thought of it, but I know myself better,” Monger said of the vehicle fee increase. “I probably stole the idea.”

The plan also includes an option for folks who say they don’t plan to go to the state parks and don’t want to pay the increase.

In Montana, 20 percent of the people refused to pay the extra fee, and there is no way to tell if these folks show up at a park.

But Monger and other Montana officials say the response has been so positive from people, they don’t expect a lot of cheating. One Montana park staffer said he received a call from a disabled veteran, who despite already getting free vehicle registration because of his disability, wanted to pay the $4 to help the parks.

The Kansas proposal would also allow folks to opt out and not pay the motor vehicle registration increase.

Of the $5 increase, Hayden said $4 would go to the parks agency, and $1 would be used to restart a grant program that had collapsed from a lack of funding. The grant program was used to match local grant money for local park improvements.

Hayden said the ultimate goal of the program in Kansas would be weaning the park agency off state general revenue funding, which has decreased the past three years because of slow tax receipts.

For the current fiscal year, the agency will receive approximately $3.34 million in state general funds. Sebelius has recommended a decrease to $2.85 million in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The proposed $5 motor vehicle registration fee would raise $12 million per year in Kansas, and $9 million would go to the wildlife and parks agency while $3 million would be used to fund the grant program that helps small and medium sized communities build recreational facilities.

Under the measure, the increase would take effect in January 2006, and the wildlife and parks agency would probably receive enough money within the first three or four months after that to stop receiving state general funds.

“It will financially be the most important bill we pursue this session,” Hayden said. “We have the governor’s full support.”