OLYMPIA — Faced with the potential closure of more parks, a state task force is looking into ways to come up with more money to keep parks and other public lands open.

It's not an easy proposition.

With dwindling state funding amid a downturn in the economy, parks have become an easy target for budget cutters.

The state already has closed five parks. Tacoma's Metropolitan Park District is talking of "mothballing" more than a dozen parks, and King County is looking to shut down parks if it can't turn them over to cities.

"We're trying to identify possible sources of dedicated revenues and then ask, `Which of these can work?"' state Rep. Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, chairman of the State Parks and Outdoor Recreation Funding Task Force, told The News Tribune of Tacoma.

The 15-member funding task force, created by the Legislature this year, plans to meet in Olympia Monday to get the public's response to several proposals.

Doubling the state tax on water and selling parking passes to outdoors enthusiasts are among the options under consideration.

Mike Ryherd, a lobbyist for several environmental groups, outdoor enthusiasts and local governments, has proposed combining a new water tax with an "Evergreen Pass," a voluntary parking pass that would be issued to people who hike, backpack, hunt fish or drive off-road vehicles on public lands.

Ryherd believes those two programs could generate as much as $50 million a year.

"If it generated enough money, maybe (the parks commission) would drop the day-use fees," Ryherd said.

Tacoma lawyer Jim Waldo said a water tax is a logical source of money to pay for new investments in water storage facilities, pipelines and other methods to improve stream flows for salmon restoration.

"I think we have more than enough water needs to pay for without adding parks," said Waldo, a water policy adviser for Gov. Gary Locke.

One proposal before the task force is an additional 5 percent tax on water bills, which would raise about $25 million a year. That money could be divided among the state agencies that oversee public lands, local governments that operate parks and water utilities.

The state currently levies a 5.029 percent tax on large water systems.

The task force aims to complete its recommendations by the end of the year and forward them to the Legislature, which is scheduled to convene Jan. 13.

"I don't know that we'll get to any large-scale solutions," McIntire said, "but maybe we can find something we can make stick this year and talk about long-term major funding later."