March 3, 2005
FWP license fees to increase
Associated Press
HELENA - Montana sportsmen will have a better idea next week how much hunting and fishing license fees will rise over the next two years when a House committee is expected to choose between two options for increasing the prices.
One of the proposals would raise the fees once next year, generating an additional $3.5 million annually to keep the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the black through mid-2009. The other would increase rates a second time in 2007 to produce a combined effect of $4.1 million more per year and sustain the agency financially through 2011.
The options were devised by a special subcommittee of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee, which earlier had hearings of two bills proposing license fee increases.
Rep. Jill Cohenour, an East Helena Democrat who worked on the alternatives, said Wednesday the two-year option is intended to be a compromise for those lawmakers who balked at boosting the prices all at once in a single year.
Both subcommittee alternatives retain discounted prices for licenses available to young, disabled and older hunters, she noted.
The average increase for all licenses in 2006 would be $7.60. The average increase under the two-year proposal would be $8.30. Only the senior combination license would decrease, from $56.25 to $55.
Chris Smith, chief of staff for the department, said the agency prefers the two-step increase because it is a less severe approach than imposing the entire increase in one year.
"In purchasing most goods and services, we are used to gradual but steady increases," he said. "This brings licensing pricing more in line with everything else."
Smith said enacting the two increases now would mean the department's budget will remain solvent for six years instead of just four. Also, fish and game officials probably would not have to return for another round of fee raises until the 2011 Legislature, he said.
Without a fee increase of some kind by this legislative session, the department will be $3 million short of what is needed for existing programs by 2009 and that deficit will grow to $14.5 million by 2011, Smith said.
The increase is being sought now because of the delay between approval from the Legislature and when the money is collected, he said.
For example, a fee increase authorized for 2006 would not take affect until the new license year begins March 1 of next year, and the full benefit of that increase would not be realized until early 2007.
Waiting to request increases from the 2007 Legislature would mean money from higher fees would not be collected in time to prevent the department's budget from going into the red, Smith said.
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Go get 'em guys! I'll be sending my $340 to MT here shortly to subsidize you welfare hunters!!! 
