BuzzH
Well-known member
Update on this bill is that it passed and creates a fee increase across the board for both NR and R hunting, fishing, trapping licenses:
This bill was a real roller-coaster and we sort of new from the start we were going to take it in the teeth. The trouble with the Legislature meddling.
Normally, I'm all about fee increases because it will raise revenue for the GF, but in the case of this bill in its final form, I'm very unhappy. Not because of the fee increase, only because it doesn't raise GF revenue, and in fact, may ultimately reduce the GF budget.
Making sense yet?
Here are the details how this cluster-shag happened.
The original form of the bill would have increased license fee's to what you see here, PLUS gave the GF commission the authority to raise fees up to the CPI yearly. The commission authority and CPI were stripped from the bill almost immediately, the Legislature hides under the covers every time any authority for fee increases is recommended to the commission. They say they want an "independent" department budget, but are unwilling to allow the commission the mechanism to fund themselves.
About this time we found out from the GF department, as well as several Legislators, that there was a footnote to HB288 that was tied to the general fund budget. So, what that meant was, if the fee increase bill passed (which it did), then that would trigger removing 5-6 million of funding the GF has been receiving from the general fund. If the bill didn't pass, then the GF would retain the general fund money and current over-all funding.
Anyway, Senator Hicks tried to amend the bill, and we came close to getting it done. His amendment made good sense, it would have done away with the tiered license fee structure for NR and sort of split the difference between the 2 price fees. This would have resulted in a net funding increase in the neighborhood of 2.7 million. WYBHA as well as WYSA supported the Hicks amendment. It died on third reading by a close vote.
Once the amendment that Hicks recommended was gone, Wyoming BHA opposed the bill, and the reason is in the bolded part. I'm not willing to allow anyone (NR or R) to pay more for the same or less funding to the GF...in particular when killing the bill would not cost the GF the general fund money.
However, what I found interesting is that several of the Senators that I emailed yesterday, opposing this bill and asking them to kill it, had no idea that the bill was tied to the general fund budget. Troubling to say the least, a case of, "we have to pass it, to see what's in it" apparently. Even though I explained exactly how this bill would not result in a net gain in revenue to the department, some still didn't seem able to grasp the obvious of what was happening. Something that we saw once we learned about the bill footnote.
The result of these fee increases, at best, is going to be a complete wash to the Department budget wise. The legislature stripped 5-6 million of general fund money from the department, and we all get to pay more for the same level of GF funding.
In other words, we got screwed...warning to other states that if you see a GF funding bill tied to a general fund, go full out kill on sight on any such bill.
Here are some notables on the fee increases.
NR elk $690
NR deer $372
NR pronghorn $324
Special NR
Elk $1266 (making this I believe the most expensive NR elk tag in the country)
deer $660
pronghorn $612
Sheep $2318, bison any $4400, cow $2750
Preference points for elk, deer, pronghorn can now be up to $75/each
Preference points for sheep/moose can now be up to $150 each
NR archery license $70.
Resident fees, hardly worth mentioning a few dollars here and there.
Full details here:
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Engross/HB0288.pdf
This bill was a real roller-coaster and we sort of new from the start we were going to take it in the teeth. The trouble with the Legislature meddling.
Normally, I'm all about fee increases because it will raise revenue for the GF, but in the case of this bill in its final form, I'm very unhappy. Not because of the fee increase, only because it doesn't raise GF revenue, and in fact, may ultimately reduce the GF budget.
Making sense yet?
Here are the details how this cluster-shag happened.
The original form of the bill would have increased license fee's to what you see here, PLUS gave the GF commission the authority to raise fees up to the CPI yearly. The commission authority and CPI were stripped from the bill almost immediately, the Legislature hides under the covers every time any authority for fee increases is recommended to the commission. They say they want an "independent" department budget, but are unwilling to allow the commission the mechanism to fund themselves.
About this time we found out from the GF department, as well as several Legislators, that there was a footnote to HB288 that was tied to the general fund budget. So, what that meant was, if the fee increase bill passed (which it did), then that would trigger removing 5-6 million of funding the GF has been receiving from the general fund. If the bill didn't pass, then the GF would retain the general fund money and current over-all funding.
Anyway, Senator Hicks tried to amend the bill, and we came close to getting it done. His amendment made good sense, it would have done away with the tiered license fee structure for NR and sort of split the difference between the 2 price fees. This would have resulted in a net funding increase in the neighborhood of 2.7 million. WYBHA as well as WYSA supported the Hicks amendment. It died on third reading by a close vote.
Once the amendment that Hicks recommended was gone, Wyoming BHA opposed the bill, and the reason is in the bolded part. I'm not willing to allow anyone (NR or R) to pay more for the same or less funding to the GF...in particular when killing the bill would not cost the GF the general fund money.
However, what I found interesting is that several of the Senators that I emailed yesterday, opposing this bill and asking them to kill it, had no idea that the bill was tied to the general fund budget. Troubling to say the least, a case of, "we have to pass it, to see what's in it" apparently. Even though I explained exactly how this bill would not result in a net gain in revenue to the department, some still didn't seem able to grasp the obvious of what was happening. Something that we saw once we learned about the bill footnote.
The result of these fee increases, at best, is going to be a complete wash to the Department budget wise. The legislature stripped 5-6 million of general fund money from the department, and we all get to pay more for the same level of GF funding.
In other words, we got screwed...warning to other states that if you see a GF funding bill tied to a general fund, go full out kill on sight on any such bill.
Here are some notables on the fee increases.
NR elk $690
NR deer $372
NR pronghorn $324
Special NR
Elk $1266 (making this I believe the most expensive NR elk tag in the country)
deer $660
pronghorn $612
Sheep $2318, bison any $4400, cow $2750
Preference points for elk, deer, pronghorn can now be up to $75/each
Preference points for sheep/moose can now be up to $150 each
NR archery license $70.
Resident fees, hardly worth mentioning a few dollars here and there.
Full details here:
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2017/Engross/HB0288.pdf
