AGFC unprepared for campaign
With Senate Bill 679 stalling in committee Tuesday, the legislative session will end without Arkansans facing higher resident hunting and fishing license fees.
The campaign was frenetic, with three separate bills to raise resident hunting and fishing license fees filed within a month. All three are still active, but they remain in committee for interim study and will probably be tabled.
Strategically, it is an inopportune time to raise resident hunting and license fees. Many legislators face re-election, and with the specter of coronavirus still looming over our lives and livelihoods, many could not justify increasing what for many Arkansans is a basic cost of living.
State Sens. Charles Beckham and Ben Gilmore, two freshman Republicans, maintained a united front against raising licenses on three major points. First, Beckham said, he could not abide language in all three bills that would have periodically raised license fees automatically to keep pace with inflation. He said automatic increases would have given the Game and Fish Commission complete autonomy without ever having to ask the legislature for money again.
Beckham said the automatic increases were designed to shield legislators during elections so that future increases would not be traced to individual votes. He said that option was personally unacceptable because he is principally opposed to delegating legislative authority to raise fees on constituents.
A simple fix might have been to add language that would have required the legislature to pass a resolution to enact the increases, a simple procedural matter that would eliminate the usual exercise of passing a bill.
Secondly, Beckham said, when the commission in 1997 lobbied for the passage of Amendment 75, which established the 1/8% statewide conservation sales tax, the commission said that sales tax revenue would allow it to freeze resident hunting and license fees in perpetuity.
And thirdly, Beckham said that raising resident license fees was an inappropriate request at this time given the full set of social, medical and economic circumstances.
A former member of the Game and Fish Commission pointed out that even though hunting and fishing license sales have been fixed since 1984 and 1990, sales tax revenue keeps pace with inflation. Also, federal aid revenue from an excise tax of sales of firearms, ammo, hunting equipment, fishing equipment and other covered items keeps pace with inflation, even though the actual amount of those taxes fluctuates. Only 25% of the commission’s revenue stream — hunting and fishing licenses — is flat.
While there is a public perception that the commission is overstaffed, the agency is also understaffed in key areas. The Game and Fish Commission also devotes about 41% of its budget to salaries and benefits. Because people do the conservation work to fulfill the agency’s mission, that percentage is not unreasonable. Cutting payroll would not bridge the commission’s funding gap.
There is a perception that the commission spends an inordinate amount of money on vehicles. Longtime Arkansas Democrat-Gazette readers might remember that the commission substantially reduced its vehicle fleet in 2010. At that time, the commission cut vehicles for staff members by about 70%.
The commission also instituted a policy about the same time that kept its vehicle fleet current while reducing replacement costs. Before enacting that policy, the commission used vehicles and other motorized equipment until its value was fully depreciated, then sold it at auction for pennies on the dollar.
Since the agency replaced equipment only when it wore out, the agency replaced vehicles and equipment on an emergency basis, which strained the agency’s budget.
Under current policy, the commission rotates vehicles out with lower mileage and use hours, enabling it to sell the items for more money and offset the cost of replacements. Vehicle and equipment replacement is now built into the agency’s budget, eliminating emergency replacement spikes.
While Game and Fish Commission employees have not had raises since 2017, that’s largely because former Game and Fish director Jeff Crow removed the Game and Fish Commission from the state pay plan and implemented an independent plan that quickly proved to be a mistake.
Meanwhile, many Arkansans have been living on stagnant wages for longer than four years. Many have lost their jobs and businesses in the last year.
From press row, it appears that the commission initiated the campaign too late in the session when the Senate majority was philosophically opposed to raising fees, did so without a focused sales pitch and was unprepared to overcome resistance.
When the issue resurfaces, the commission will have a new director, a new commission chairman and at least one new commissioner.
Beckham said that he expects repercussions that might include facing a well-financed primary opponent. Feelings are raw on both sides.