Sticker Shock

[Dan Morris]

I knew Colorado fees were going up....but.......bought my res Small Game and comb fishing today. With new habitat fees and SR, it jumped from $30 to $46......now, if they will charge like fees to tree huggers n bird watchers................
Dan

[fabsroman]

Welcome to the club. I remember when a hunting license in Maryland was around $20. Now, I think I pay well over $50 for mine because I need to get bow and muzzleloader stamps along with waterfowl stamps. Used to be that you didn't need a state migratory bird stamp to hunt doves, but they changed that too. Granted, I was already buying it to hunt waterfowl, but for the guys that only hunted doves, it was an increased fee.

If they collected the same fees from the tree huggers and bunny huggers, we would have plenty of habitat to hunt on.

[GoodOlBoy]

I dont want to even think about what our fees are going to. Use to be you could fish with a cane pole without a license, and you could hunt some non-game species without one (coon, hog, etc)

Now you have to buy a license if you are going to talk about hunting or fishing

GoodOlBoy

[drummer]

The argument against charging nonconsumptive users a fee is that it will give them power in making mgt. decisions on public land.
Try to look on the bright side of increased license fees:You still have the power to make a difference for the better through your wallet.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah except that anytime the state needs funding for another project guess whose budget gets hit from licensing fees? I bought a hunting license not a free needles for crack smoking baby makin welfare collecting mothers license. . . . .

GoodOlBoy

[fabsroman]

Fortunately, in Maryland all hunting and fishing license fees go to the Department of Natural Resources to fund the preservation of the resources.

[Jack]

"Fortunately, in Maryland all hunting and fishing license fees go to the Department of Natural Resources to fund the preservation of the resources."
The same is true in New York, fortunately.

[multibeard]

The same here in Michigan.

except they keep cutting the general fund budget for the DNR so our license fees are getting robbed to fund other parts of the department.

Fortunately the voters approved developing a fund where all the oil lease money gained from state owned lands are deposited. The interest is spent on all sorts of recreation projects in the state. The legislature has tried many times to rob the fund but so far they have not been successful.

Just like when we voted in the lottery. All the money goes to schools. That is fine but they keep cutting the general budget expenditures for schools so we lost instead of gained. Now with all the Indian casinos the lottery is dropping off.

[fabsroman]

Politicians find a way to convince people of something, and then they find a loophole. Utterly amazing. Ehrlich, our governor, wanted to put slots in Maryland to benefit the schools, but I am willing to bet that the same thing would happen. The proceeds from the slots would go to the school system, but other state money would have been cut from the schools' budget and used for something. Very, very sneeky.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Pa wants an increase in hunting license soon ....guess is still a small price to pay for what we get to do..they were talking about charging a $30 state game land use fee even for the tree huggers,birdwatchers,bike riders etc...but we are fighting that one cause soon as they pay to use the land our hunting license bought and paid for, they will want sayso on what goes on with it..naaa....gotta fight that one...so anyone reading this from pa, contact PGC and say no to this land fee...They wanted awhile ago to join the fish com and game com and deposit all the funds in the state general fund...we still have to stop this from happening...otherwise it will go to other uses such as mentioned above or highway building...na...is power in numbers..all best contact game com and state reps to let them know where you stand...