Fish and Boat Commission a signature away from setting its own license fees
A sticking point in the funding of wildlife management in Pennsylvania was greased Monday when a landmark legislative bill landed on the desk of Gov. Tom Wolf. If approved by the governor, House Bill 808 would enable the state Fish and Boat Commission to set its own license and permit fees for the first time since the agency was founded in 1866.
On Tuesday the governor’s staff was said to “have some issues” with the language in part of the bill and was expected to “sort it out” soon. Mr. Wolf was expected to sign House Bill 808 sometime this week.
For decades the state’s aquatic wildlife management agency has searched for an elusive permanent funding source. By charter, Fish and Boat does not receive funding from state taxes. A semi-autonomous extension of the state’s executive branch, it was created as a user-pay commission system separate from the political whims of Harrisburg. It’s current budget of about $50 million is raised through revenue from the sale of fishing and boating licenses and permits, industrial leases of Fish and Boat properties and reapportionments from a federal excise tax on the sale of fishing gear and motor boat fuel.
Like the Game Commission, Pennsylvania’s other wildlife management agency, Fish and Boat doesn’t set its license fees. The state legislature provides no funding but sets the license fees by statute.
The system worked pretty well for more than 100 years, then stopped. Lawmakers haven’t raised Fish and Boat license fees in 15 years. While the agency’s costs for fishing- and boating-related programs have risen $11 million annually, according to executive director Tim Schaeffer, a resident adult fishing license has cost $22.90 since 2005.
“Some [legislators] on both sides … saw raising license fees as like raising taxes,” said state Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny, minority chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee. “So, instead of raising the price only 50 cents in a year, we do nothing year after year. Now we have to raise it once in 15 years and it’s a giant raise in price by the legislature. There’s no appetite for that [among lawmakers], no political will to raise the fees.”
To counter the legislature’s unwillingness, both Fish and Boat and the Game Commission legally maintained “strategic reserves” of cash totaling nearly their yearly budgets. Lawmakers who initially wouldn’t grant requests for license fee increases questioned the agencies’ need for revenue enhancement while holding such surpluses. As part of bipartisan license fee increase negotiations, both agencies are reducing but not eliminating cash reserves.
If House Bill 808 becomes law, Fish and Boat fees would be set by the commissioners for five years. The proposed increases would raise the price of a resident adult fishing license to $24 in 2022, followed by annual jumps of $1 per year to $27 in 2025. A trout-salmon permit, currently $8, would be $10 in 2022 with incremental increases to $11.50 in 2025. Those figures don’t include the automated licensing system’s fee of 90 cents per sale.
Also under HB 808, the use of Lake Erie permit revenue would be expanded to include projects that support public fishing on those waters. Each Fish and Boat license fee increase would be subject to approval by the legislature, and a sunset provision would allow the law to expire after five years. Lawmakers could then vote to restore the law or make self-regulation of license fees permanent.
Mr. Kortz said he doesn’t know how the bill will impact the Game Commission’s efforts to set its own licence fees, which legislators have allowed to remain at $20.90 since 1998. The Game Commission operates on a budget of about $100 million.