Proposed budget could mean an increase in license fees
With the DNR looking at a $15.5 million shortfall to maintain current services, the governor proposed some fee increases for hunting and fishing licenses. The fees on resident licenses last increased in 2005. Data from the DNR states that inflation increased the cost of providing services by 59% since that time.
What the fee increases end up at remains up in the air. But proposals like this don’t get made without fees increasing. Thoughts I heard from hunters went in several directions on this, but “balancing the DNR’s budget on the backs of hunters” came up more than once.
One of the reasons for this stems from the percentage of proposed fee increases. The Resident Gun Deer License proposed increase raises the cost from $22 to $42 – a $20 increase. Coming up on my sixth decade I can truthfully state that I don’t recall almost a doubling of license cost in my lifetime, no matter how much time passed since the last increase.
Case in point, just less than ten years ago the state raised the cost of the State Waterfowl Stamp from $7 to $12. The last time that stamp fee increased went back 30 years. That amounted to a 71% increase, not quite double but maybe this amounts to focusing on the peas and carrots instead of the duck dinner.
The Resident Small Game License currently runs $16. The proposed fee increase - $20, for a total cost of $36. That more than doubles. More than one waterfowl hunter raised their eyebrows on that one, so did the resident upland bird hunters. Say someone primarily hunts squirrels with their small game license. Squirrel hunting like upland bird hunting has enjoyed increased interest over the last five to ten years. A $20 dollar increase for a squirrel license might make some start thinking about just taking up fishing.
And speaking of fishing, the governor proposed increasing the resident fishing license by $10 from $20 to $30. Just in case anglers felt left out.
The old fishing license fee of $20 added to the current $16 for a Small Game License, and $22 for the Gun Deer License added up to $58 – but the state sold the Sportsmen’s License which provided all three for the bargain price of $60. What do they plan to do after the fee increases? I ask, because nothing is listed anywhere. Under the proposed fee increase, the total for the same three licenses adds up to $102. What will the Sportsmen’s License sell for?
The Conservation Patrons License currently sells for $161 and the governor proposed increasing that by $40 to $201. For those not familiar with the Conservation Patron License, it pretty much includes all the hunting and fishing licenses in the state, expect bear and elk. It includes all the state stamps associated with hunting and fishing and it includes an annual state parks pass. If you hunt gun and archery deer, waterfowl, turkey, upland gamebirds, fish not only for inland species but both inland and great lakes trout or salmon, and camp – it’s worth it. If you trap on top of that, even more. In general, those that purchase the Conservation Patrons License that I know stay abreast of a lot of the happenings with hunting and fishing. They participate in the Annual Spring Hearings. The state sells somewhere near 55,000 of those licenses a year. With everything included in the patron’s license, I’m wondering why the Sportsmen’s License price exceeded the cost of buying the licenses a la carte since 2005? In the past I covered the feelings of several Wisconsin hunters and anglers about non-resident hunting licenses fees. The governor proposes increasing the non-residents licenses by the same dollar amount proposed for residents. I suspect some angst over that.
The state tells us that services for hunters and fishers will need to be cut if these increases don’t happen. Truthfully, the state started cutting services for hunters and anglers years ago. Wisconsin remains a state with a very low ratio of game wardens to license holders. And game wardens do much more than enforce game and fish violations.
A fee increase of some sort is coming. We don’t have to like it, but it’s coming. Question is, are we going to weigh in on this or not? License fees have been mishandled by both parties for decades and it looks like we will pay the piper now. At this point the only thing with prices rising faster than hunting and fishing licenses are eggs.
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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN
