Time is right to increase license fees
MADISON - The road to conservation success is laid on a bedrock of science, both biological and social, and sealed with adequate funding. The path doesn’t go directly from state and federal fish and wildlife agencies to your local duck marsh or bass lake, however. It’s often quite curvy and first must pass through Madison or Washington, D.C.
In 1937 a stroke of legislative genius in our nation’s capital created the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. For 80 years, it has provided dedicated funding to states.
The same model was used to create the Federal Aid in Fish Restoration in 1950.
The programs derive their funding from sales of hunting, shooting, archery or fishing equipment and distribute a portion of it to the states each year to benefit wildlife or fish management.
The concept is relatively simple: User pay, user benefit.
Those who use the resources most pay into funds that help purchase habitat, professionally manage stocks of fish and game, build shooting ranges and install boat landings.
Wisconsin and other states continue to enjoy the fruits of these federal programs (see details below).
But the funding only augments statebased programs. And no similar conservation “grand slam” has been struck by Legislators in Madison over the years.
In fact, our in-state elected representatives have neglected pleas by sportsmen and women in recent years to take the most basic action: Increase fishing and hunting license fees.
The costs of most Wisconsin licenses have not been raised since 2005, and some have been static since the 1990s.
The inaction by our legislators is having real and negative consequences.
A Department of Natural Resources report in December detailed a $4 million annual funding deficit in its fish and wildlife account, which derives about 90% of its revenue from fishing and hunting license sales, according to the agency.
The shortfall has caused the DNR to cut programs and activities.
Larry Bonde of Kiel, chairman of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, is part of a coalition of conservation leaders who for more than six months have been working to get legislators to move on fee increases.
“We’re not seeing any lake surveys conducted in our area,” Bonde said. “And properties that the state has paid to have easements to or purchased outright are not being managed. Invasive phragmites are out of control on many of them.”
The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the state’s largest conservation group, has been in support of raising fishing and hunting license fees for more than five years, said WWF executive director George Meyer of Madison.
“We’ve got to increase the funding available to the DNR,” Meyer said. “It’s long past time to do this.”
In January, those organizations were among fourteen conservation groups that issued a statement in strong support of increased fees.
The groups even made it as easy as possible on the State Legislature by detailing proposals to bridge the fund- ing gap.
The organizations proposed six fee hikes:
■ Archery and gun deer licenses would cost $27 (up $3), raising an estimated additional $1.75 million annually.
■ The inland trout stamp would cost $15 (up $5), generating $718,000 more.
■ The Great Lakes salmon and trout stamp would cost $15 (up $5), boosting revenue by $662,300.
■ The bear tag application fee would cost $10 (up $5.60), adding $603,000.
■ The state waterfowl stamp would cost $12 (up $5), raising $303,500 more.
■ The otter application fee would cost $8 (up $5), generating an extra $80,800.
The recommendations were presented to Gov. Scott Walker and the State Legislature at the start of the 2017-’19 cycle.
The proposals would bring $4.12 million in additional revenue to the agency.
Although there was hope the changes would be included in the included in the 2017-’19 state budget bill, so far there is no progress to report.
It’s common in this era for tax increases to be a “third rail” for politicians.
But fee increases are another matter, especially when the people affected are asking for them.
And our state’s leaders should not need to be reminded that fishing and hunting play key roles in Wisconsin’s more than $20 billion annual tourism industry.
Wisconsin politicians are reportedly at loggerheads over transportation funding and several other issues.
After a dozen years without an increase, a modest hike in Wisconsin hunting and fishing license fees should be a bipartisan slam dunk.
It’s time for legislators in Madison to listen to their conservation constituents and help bolster funding for state natural resources management.
Payouts from programs announced: Wisconsin will receive $34.5 million from federal programs to assist with in-state fish and wildlife programs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.
Overall, the Service will dole out $1.1 billion to states according to a formula that includes geographical size and fishing and hunting license sales.
The Wisconsin apportionment includes $23.1 million from the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration program and $11.4 million from the Sport Fish Restoration program.
The programs, also known as Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson, respectively, for the lawmakers and acts that established them, annually collect excise taxes on hunting, shooting, archery and fishing products and then distribute the monies to the states.
Product sales that fund the programs include firearms, ammunition, bows, fishing tackle, electric boat motors and motorboat fuel.
Distributions of the Wildlife Restoration funds soared in recent years as sales of firearms and ammunition increased in the U.S.
In 2015, Wisconsin was apportioned a record $24.9 million from the wildlife fund and $11.6 million from the fish fund. Last year it received $20.98 million and $11.85 million, respectively.
The wildlife distributions over the last decade are approximately double the previous 10-year period. Fish apportionments have generally been stable to slightly declining.