CONCORD, N.H.- The House Ways and Means Committee has unanimously opposed an effort that would see entry fees to parks in the Granite State doubled.

On Monday the committee rejected Senate Bill 511 sponsored by Sen. Keith Murphy R-Manchester that would have forced the State’s department of Natural and Cultural Resources to increase 50% of non-residential rates, something that acting commissioner Adam Crepeau opposed, and warned that increasing the rates could cause some tourists to cancel planned visits.

In his proposal Murphy claimed his bill would have helped ensure that residents don’t visit parks only to find out that out-of-state reservations most of which made online resulted in the parks being filled to capacity.