HARTFORD — Connecticut's three shoreline state parks are beginning to collect the 6.35 percent sales tax on parking fees.
Beginning Saturday, the tax will be imposed at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison and Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme. Other parks will charge the tax in coming weeks.
Twenty-five of the state's 109 parks charge for parking. The new two-year, $40.3 billion state budget that recently cleared the General Assembly and was signed into law by the governor taxed those fees for the first time.
Residents attending shoreline state parks on weekends will pay $13.83 cents to park; $9.57 on weekdays. Nonresidents will pay $23.40 on weekends; $15.95 on weekends. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is encouraging park-goers to have exact change.