State hunting license price could jump
August 11th, 2005 by Administrator
State hunting license price could jump
Pa. Game Commission ‘fiscal crisis’ cited at hearing
HARRISBURG — You might have to shell out more bucks in order to shoot a buck or a doe in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is facing financial problems, some caused by a new federal rule requiring hunting license applicants to give their Social Security numbers.
The commission might have to ask the Legislature to increase the cost of a basic hunting license to $30 from the current $19.
House and Senate committees that oversee the hunting of deer, bear, pheasants, turkey, elk and other game animals held a hearing here yesterday on what Rep. Bruce Smith called a “fiscal crisis” at the game commission.
Legislators may be forced to consider the first increase in license fees since July 1, 1999, when the cost of a basic hunting license rose to $19 from $12.75, the amount set in 1985. Additional licenses, such as for bear or elk hunting or hunting deer with bows and arrows or muzzleloader rifles, would be extra, as they are now.
Smith, a York Republican who chairs the House Game and Fisheries Committee, said legislators still face months of discussions about the higher fees and doubted that any action would come before November 2006, the final month of the current two-year session.
But Smith did say that one idea under study is whether to boost the basic license fee to about $30.
He also said that any higher fee, if approved by the Legislature, wouldn’t take effect until July 1, 2007.
Smith lectured game commission officials yesterday for surprising legislators with concerns about their fiscal problems, which lawmakers didn’t find out about until recently.
“It’s a hard vote for a legislator to increase license fees — it’s a tough sell,” he told commission Executive Director Vernon Ross. That’s because many constituents are hunters.
“You can’t continue to blindside us and expect us to give you a license fee increase,” Smith said. “I am disturbed about this.”
One problem the commission faces is a new federal requirement that people applying for hunting licenses give their Social Security numbers on the form. It’s part of a federal effort to make it easier to track down “deadbeat dads” who owe child support to the former wives, Ross said.
Both he and Smith feared it could lead to a reduction in the number of hunting licenses issued, because some hunters will refuse to list their numbers.
Also, with many older, World War II-era hunters dying and not being replaced by equal numbers of younger ones, it’s been hard to increase license revenue, Ross said.
Commission members said youths have many activities other than hunting to occupy their time these days, including team sports and video games.
Ross said that if hunting were extended to Sundays — something not now permitted in Pennsylvania — it would give youths an extra day to hunt on weekends.
The sale of hunting and trapping licenses makes up a lot of the agency’s income, about $39 million a year. It also gets about $7 million in federal funds and $12 million from the sale of timber taken on state gamelands.
Ross said that since 1999, many of the commission’s costs, such as salaries, gasoline and vehicles, have been rising because of inflation, while license fees remained the same.
Ross said that he’s worked hard to hold down commission expenses. Of the 732 authorized personnel, about 60 slots are vacant, most of them wildlife control officers.
“We have started to implement internal cuts in the agency’s budget,” he said. “There was no way to prevent internal cuts from having some impact on the public.”
These include limiting hours at the Pymatuning Wildlife Learning Center in northwest Pennsylvania, slower action in removing “road kill” deer from highways and limiting hunting programs for youths.
Smith complained about a reduction in the number of pheasants raised and released for hunting, from 238,000 to about 124,000. That will upset some hunters, he said.
Ross also said he’s facing $5 million in salary increases for commission personnel over the next two years, which will put a further strain on his budget.
“Unless we have a license fee increase soon … the long-term effect will be a leaner 2006-07 and an even leaner 2007-08,” he said. That, in turn, “will require additional spending cuts that will further impact our ability to deliver programs and services to the public.”
By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau