Back in January the board of directors of the New York State Conservation Council voted to voice support for an increase in hunting and fishing license fees. The agreement was based on the hikes being modest and the money staying within the Conservation Fund.
There was also support for a $10 trout and salmon stamp as well as a pheasant stamp to save and protect pheasant hunting opportunities in the state. The trout/salmon stamp would only be supported by the council if the funds were dedictated to maintaining and staffing of fish hatcheries and the stocking of fish. The pheasant stamp would be supported as long as the money was dedicated to raising and/or purchasing pheasants and the stocking of pheasants on lands open to hunting by sportsmen. More recently, however, these stamps were to be pulled if the proposed license fee increases could cover the costs of these programs.
The proposed license fee increases would be by $10 in most cases; some would be more, some less. In all the proposed fees would bring an additional $14.5 million to the Conservation Fund.
The DEC will be issuing an easy to read breakdown of the Conservation Fund on their website shortly.
Harold Palmer, President of the NYSCC, made the following comments on the issue:
- The highest-ranking DEC people that are paid from the Conservation Fund are the Department heads, for instance, John Major. No one from the Governor's office is paid from the Conservation Fund.
- The Conservation Fund went through a Federal Audit in 2006.
- When figuring increases, only those licenses for legal hunting implements, seasons, etc. could be figured in.
- I received a lot of comments about stamps. Maybe we should change the laws so that the stamps we already have would be considered licenses or permits. The stamps we already have are bowhunting, muzzleloader, duck, habitat/access.
- I do have to agree that if they implement a trout stamp, next it would be walleye, then musky, bass, pan fish or anything else to raise money; and there was no guarantee that enough money would have been generated to run the fish hatcheries, or even the pheasant program.
- The reason the NYSCC took a position in early January to support the stamps was to show the Governor that we were serious about saving the pheasant program, when I had been told by the Governor's staff person that they would not talk about a license fee increase. Later, after the Governor stated that sportsmen would work with DEC to come up with funding to make the Conservation Fund solvent to keep the pheasant program going in the future, I felt that stamps would not bring in the needed money and the only way to assure enough revenue was to work on a license fee increase, which Commissioner Grannis agreed to have his staff work on, with CFAB and the sportsmen.
There seems to be a lot of these increases going on around other states as well.
ReplyDeleteYup, that seems to be the norm around the entire country. But, can anyone tell me what the sportsmen and women are being compensated with?
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