You certainly can't blame them. It's logical right? But the question becomes...when does it stop? Why is it needed? Is WY game and fish short on funds? If not, then is the price hike justified? If it isn't within Wyoming, in terms of management dollars or budgetary spending, then just taking the money because they can seems a bit off. Why not just auction them all off it's all about money? Do tags ever get cheaper? If the answer is no, then why would we be in a hurry to make them more expensive if funds are not needed?
Again...people are just asking questions. Are we....or is wyoming...doing the right thing? Maybe in the near future it's irrelevant....but what about in the long term? Should we doing everything we can to get other states to be cheaper and not get wyoming to get more expensive?
The trend is clear...Up, Up, and Up. There will always be someone willing to pay any price asked. Sheep hunts sell out just fine...but where does that leave everyone else?
It won't stop. Just like it hasn't in MT, ND, SD, IL, WA, FL, you name it. Not many other things, including median US income has went down either. That ship sailed a long time ago.
Wyoming GF is not short on funds, and this will answer another question that's been asked about, "what happens in a recession".
Wyoming GF is self funded and can also roll money into an account to save for downturns in later years or unforseen expenses. I don't want my department running on a shoe-string year to year budget. I don't run my personal finances like that and the GF has the ability to roll additional funds into accounts to be used later so they don't have to either. It makes one thing, sense.
Plus, there are literally HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of uses for additional funding. Hiring more GF employees, increasing their pay to keep good employees here, studies, migration work, habitat improvements, more over-passes that cost multi-millions each and the list is endless...you get the point, I hope.
If the stated goal of making a bigger pie in terms of wildlife, access, etc has any merit or fact, its going to take more than just an annual GF shoe-string budget to make that happen.
It's laughable to hear hunters, in general, want to "create a bigger pie", then be the tightest clowns on the planet and whine every time a fee increase is even suggested.
You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit....