Colorado Specific Question: CPW Financial Situation

mwfishy

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Im new to Hunt Talk and was drawn here by listening to the Randy's podcast about getting active in the processes that drive/provide for hunting and angling. Randy has stated many times that the best minds in the hunting owl are on this site. Now, I have a question for the Colorado Guys.

I moved out of the state in 2009 and have just returned. When I left I do not remember the former CDW have the financial woes that we are seeing today. First, why did the state merge State Parks and CDW? Second, I'd assume hunting and fishing bring in the highest percentage of funding into the CPW, are hunters/anglers having to pay more to float the Parks portion? Finally, where does Colorado's Pitman-Robertson monies go?

Thanks in advance folks.

From the new guy in Montrose.
 
Welcome. I'm pretty new here myself. Glad to see a lot of west slope representation.

DOW and Parks merged to save money. By all accounts, it is working and both agencies have seen savings. Financials for the parks and for the wildlife sides of the house are kept completely separate, so no license revenues are used to fund parks. PR monies go to the wildlife side of CPW. There are links in the other thread about the roundtable that should get you to that info.
 
I don't have time right now, but I'll try to answer this in some detail later. I have attended CPW stakeholder meetings on financial sustainability for a little over 3 years now (we have another this Tuesday). There are a lot of misconceptions (for good reasons) about the financial situation of CPW before and after the merger. As marksjeep said, check out the links in the other threads as well. Also, keep in mind that resident fees have not been raised in 11 years.
 
I don't have time right now, but I'll try to answer this in some detail later. I have attended CPW stakeholder meetings on financial sustainability for a little over 3 years now (we have another this Tuesday). There are a lot of misconceptions (for good reasons) about the financial situation of CPW before and after the merger. As marksjeep said, check out the links in the other threads as well. Also, keep in mind that resident fees have not been raised in 11 years.

How they are raised plays a big factor in the "when" they are raised.

mw, go to the meetings. You'll be better for it.
 
I noticed last year, CPW started requiring non-resident Elk hunters to buy a fishing license. They say the fishing license fee is a bargain for them, however I think it's a means to soak them for additional monies. I don't know many non-resident hunters interested in going fishing during a short rifle season, but they have to buy the license. It's a win-win for CPW though, as they get the revenue, yet not much impact on the resource. I guess I don't like the strategy of forcing people to buy a license they don't want.
 
CPW did not start requiring NR elk hunters to purchase a fishing license. They started giving a fishing license to NR who purchased an elk license. The cost of the NR elk license did not go up beyond the annually adjusted CPI rate. They did it to increase excise tax revenue (PR and DJ), because for those purposes, they are now selling two licenses vs. one.

For the same reason, we will probably see the end of the free senior fishing license in any new fee increase bill. CPW currently gives away over 80,000 senior fishing licenses annually.
 
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