AUSTIN - Nature-loving Texans who cough up a little extra cash each year for license plates honoring the horned lizard or Texas bluebonnets are told that their money is being spent on state parks, fisheries and various wildlife projects.

But for several years, the Texas Legislature has been using money raised from specialty license plates to help balance the state budget, even as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is experiencing its most serious financial crisis ever, records show.

"It just makes me sick," said Sylvia Newsom, an Austin wildlife enthusiast who has a horned lizard plate on a family car. "If that money is supposed to go to the parks, then that's where it should go."

The use of the license plate fund represents one of Austin's secrets: money that sits in so-called dedicated accounts often gets used for something else. An estimated $2.75 billion in state revenue, dedicated for items ranging from technology upgrades in schools to utility assistance for the poor, is being used to free up money for other spending priorities, state officials say.

But few state agencies need funding more urgently than the parks system. A recent Star-Telegram report found that chronic funding shortages had resulted in park closures, deteriorating sewer systems, inoperable vehicles, leaking roofs and environmental violations. And a report from a parks advisory committee is expected to recommend that an additional $100 million be spent each year just to maintain the system.

Parks officials estimate that the fund in which license plate revenue is deposited will have $4.3 million at the end of August. But lawmakers voted to give the parks department only $106,000 a year out of that account when they passed the state budget in 2005.

Not long after lawmakers left town, parks officials requested a $2 million emergency appropriation, but state leaders turned them down. "Every little bit helps," said Gene McCarty, deputy director for administration at the parks department. "That [license plate money] would have been one source of funding for the need."

The state has a variety of specialty license plates that raise money for various causes and programs. Four of them -- carrying images of the horned lizard, bluebonnet, largemouth bass and white-tailed deer -- are called conservation license plates.

Each year the plates, which cost $30 more than regular ones, bring in about $500,000 intended for parks and conservation.

The horned lizard plate brought in $411,300 last year, making it the state's third most popular specialty plate.

After taking out the administrative fee that goes to the Texas Transportation Department, the parks system was entitled to receive $301,620 from horned lizard enthusiasts, state figures show. Bluebonnet plates brought in $118,184.

When Texans buy the plates, they're told that the money "goes to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for acquisition and development, maintenance or operation of parks, fisheries and wildlife projects," according to the Transportation Department's Web site. But the parks and wildlife agency can't spend it unless the Legislature tells it to.

State Rep. Jim Dunnam, Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives, said House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and other Republicans in the Legislature had "lied to Texans" about parks funding. Craddick's office did not return phone calls Friday.

Texas law seems fairly clear about the intended use of the money. It's supposed to go "to the credit of the Texas parks and wildlife conservation and capital account ... and is not income for the purpose of reducing general revenue appropriations." But nothing in the law prevents the Legislature from keeping the dedicated money in reserves. And in recent years, money in various "dedicated" accounts has been used to offset spending increases elsewhere.

It's little more than an accounting maneuver that allows the Legislature to borrow money dedicated for one purpose so lawmakers can spend it somewhere else.

"It's one of these fun-house mirror deals," Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton said. "It's basically like the state is using an IOU."

Bill Brooks, an Austin-area parks enthusiast, discovered the situation a few months ago and promptly canceled his horned lizard license plate.

"I dropped it just as a personal protest," he said. "I just think it's horrible."

In the Know

Conservation plates

Four conservation license plates are designed to raise money for Texas state parks. They are the horned lizard, bluebonnet, white-tailed deer and largemouth bass.

Specialty license plates cost $30 more than normal plates. After administrative costs are deducted, $22 is intended for parks use.

Last year, Texans spent $724,830 to get the conservation plates, generating $531,542 for parks use.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's conservation fund, into which the license plate money goes, will have a $4.3 million balance by Aug. 31.

Lawmakers gave the parks system $106,000 from the conservation fund for fiscal 2006.

SOURCES: Texas Department of Transportation; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department