"Proposed License Fees for Wyoming" Udated link

[Bigshooter]

http://www.huntthewest.com/2012/WYfees.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HuntTheWest+%28Hunt+the+West%29





I got this off of another site.  If this is correct, I find it sad.







Here is the new proposed license fees as they were presented at the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resource Committee meeting, held August 23, 2012 in Jackson, WY.

Mule deer and Whitetail deer licenses will become species specific but no variation of license fee was presented, so I am assuming all deer licenses would cost the same.

Resident:
Antelope: from $31 to $48
Deer: $36 to $52
Elk: $50 to $75
Moose: $110 to $175
Big Horn Sheep: $115 to $250
Mountain Goat: $120 to $260
Black Bear: $43 to $52.50
Daily Fishing: $4 to $7
Annual Fishing: $22 to $36

Non-resident:
Antelope: from $270 to $370
Deer: $310 to $520
Elk: $575 to $750
Moose: $1400 to $1750
Big Horn Sheep: remains @ $2500
Mountain Goat: $2150 to $2600
Black Bear: $360 to $437.50
Daily Fishing: remains @ $12
Annual Fishing: remains @ $90


Other Licenses:
Conservation Stamp: $12 to $14.50
Res. Archery: $14 to $17
Non-res. Archery: $28 to $34
Res. Application Fee: $5 to $6
Non-res. App. Fee: $14 to $17


Reduced Fees:
Res. Annual Game Bird: $14 to $10
Res. Small Game: $14 to $10
Res. Combo GB/SG: $22 to $15

[Ridgerunner]

Ouch

[6x6in6]

The current non-resident costs you copied from elsewhere look to be a touch low (roughly 5%) but still, if those new numbers become reality that is a tough one to swallow. 

[actionshooter]

Montana and Idaho haven't sold out yet and they are begging for hunters to come visit

Seems they raised there fees a couple of years ago.
 
 I wonder if those two facts have anything to do with each other?

[mkcj]

Same as here right resident's pay 10% of non-residents fee's?

[lhrbull]

looks like wyoming is looking to reduce non-resident hunter like montana a few years back

[dvolmer]

The states want the max they can get financially and still sell all of there licenses.  For instance if they have 5000 out of state deer tags and have 10,000 people putting in for them at $300 say, they want to know how much they can raise the tag and have 5500 people putting in for the 5000 tags.  They know that as they raise the tag price, people will start bailing on buying them.  But they dont care as long as they sell them all.  This is what happened in Montana.  They had twice as many people putting in for the amount of tags they had and decided to raise the price up to see if they could get the ratio to be close to equal in applicants and tag numbers.  montana got a little bit too greedy and raised the tag cost up and above the amount they should have and now cant sell all of there licenses.  People are laughing at them but they are still making out like bandits.  This is due to the higher costs they get for the ones they do sell.  if they have 1500 left out of the 140000 they sell they still are doing a lot better because the 12500 people that did buy tags bought them at close to twice as much as they were selling before they raised the price.  They figure in the future when the economy gets better the other 1500 will sell.

If you were selling your truck and you asked $1000 for it and you had 20 people call you to buy it, wouldnt you prefer to sell your truck for $2000 and have three people call and want to buy it.  Even better you could sell it for $2500 and have just one person want to buy it.  This is the principle they are practicing.  Not fun for the out of state hunter but good and big business for the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming with hardly any people living there and limited resources due to low population and revenue.

[Bean Counter]

Wow, thanks!!!! 

I was just about to start playing the points game and I was going to start with Wyoming.  Still a few weeks left to buy points. I guess they don't want my money, afterall.

[longrange7mm]

  if thats the case the draw odds just improved and im going to hav to start working extra  what a joke I know a lot of residents that will not buy elk tags at that price as well this is going to be like MT was after there big price jump!!

[bobcat]

You can't really blame them. It only makes sense to set the fees as high as the market will bear. Heck it looks like their NR fees were lower than Oregon's. It seems reasonable that Wyoming prices should at least be close to the same as Oregon, if not higher, since in general the hunting is better.

[NRA4LIFE]

This is great news.  Stopped hunting there 10 years ago.  Yet another good reason not to hunt there.

[actionshooter]

I don't blame them either, they have budgets to maintain, I just don't like it..............but it hasn't stopped me, I have a pocket full of Idaho and Montana tags. I guess I just like to bitch.

[Bean Counter]

Sounds like ya'll are sure this proposal is going to through (?) 

[6x6in6]

WY has a state law that basically states that at least every 5 years the Commission shall review an analyze license fees.  The last time WY did a review was 2007 and increases were implemented for 2008.  This also happened back in 2002/2003. 
Both reviews in the past resulted in about a 15% average across the board increase to non-res fees. 
The 2012 proposed fees are similar to the proposed fees of the past on a % of increase basis.  The Commission whacked away at those proposed fees back then.  Maybe the Commission has paid attention to what has happened to their neighboring states and either do nothing or at best only a slight increase. 

[trophyhunt]

Wow, that fn sucks. I have one less than max points for Wyoming and now I don't think I will be applying next year, what a bunch of crap.

[Special T]

I didn't see a wolf tag?  I thought that they wer going for $350??? But Then again in the SE portion just a reg hunting Lic will work! 

[trophyhunt]

I didn't see a wolf tag?  I thought that they wer going for $350??? But Then again in the SE portion just a reg hunting Lic will work! 

Idaho wolf tags are around 35 bucks. No way in hell I would pay 350 for a tag, I hope these numbers are not happening.

[Special T]

I kinda thought that WY ould sell cheep wolf tags like ID, BUT 3/4 of the state you can shoot as many as you want with a general hunting Lic... Its only around the park that they charge the tag fee...

I wonder how heavily that rule is enforced?

[Bigshooter]

http://www.huntthewest.com/2012/WYfees.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HuntTheWest+%28Hunt+the+West%29


Check out this link.  And send in comments.

[Ridgerunner]

660 for a special antelope tag are you kidding me?  It's too bad how expensive hunting is getting.

[6x6in6]

With 12 moose points, I have way too much invested in waiting time to just up and walk away.  But that up charge of another $350 is going to hurt since I'm on the cusp of being drawn. 
On the flip side, that up-charge might just put me in the winners bracket in 2013.   

When I started the moose venture, the cost of the non-res tag was $1010. 

[Bigshooter]

The states want the max they can get financially and still sell all of there licenses.  For instance if they have 5000 out of state deer tags and have 10,000 people putting in for them at $300 say, they want to know how much they can raise the tag and have 5500 people putting in for the 5000 tags.  They know that as they raise the tag price, people will start bailing on buying them.  But they dont care as long as they sell them all.  This is what happened in Montana.  They had twice as many people putting in for the amount of tags they had and decided to raise the price up to see if they could get the ratio to be close to equal in applicants and tag numbers.  montana got a little bit too greedy and raised the tag cost up and above the amount they should have and now cant sell all of there licenses.  People are laughing at them but they are still making out like bandits.  This is due to the higher costs they get for the ones they do sell.  if they have 1500 left out of the 140000 they sell they still are doing a lot better because the 12500 people that did buy tags bought them at close to twice as much as they were selling before they raised the price.  They figure in the future when the economy gets better the other 1500 will sell.

If you were selling your truck and you asked $1000 for it and you had 20 people call you to buy it, wouldnt you prefer to sell your truck for $2000 and have three people call and want to buy it.  Even better you could sell it for $2500 and have just one person want to buy it.  This is the principle they are practicing.  Not fun for the out of state hunter but good and big business for the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming with hardly any people living there and limited resources due to low population and revenue.

Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all have left over tags that you can buy today.  Idaho has completely screwed themselves.  They use to sell out of all there tags in a week.  Now there lucky to sell any tags.  Montana increased there prices a couple years ago and guess what they still have a ton of tags for sale today.  And right now in wyoming they still have tags avaiable at the price there at right now.

How about instead of these government agencies spending more money than they have, how about they do what the rest of us do and CUT back on there spending.  Why is that so hard to do?  I have very little doubt that the dumbest people in this country work for the government.  And I don't care if that offends some of you, so don't send me any messages.

[steeleywhopper]

That Blows big time! I was planning on going back to Wyoming next year.. looks like I better start saving the pocket change now.

[GUscottie]

I understand capitalism and how they need to make money, but if they can't even sell out now, why increase the prices and have fewer sold tags? I get they may make a little bit more money...but is that the answer?

[307_BOWS]

How about instead of these government agencies spending more money than they have, how about they do what the rest of us do and CUT back on there spending.  Why is that so hard to do?

One thing you have to understand is that the Wyoming Game and Fish does not receive money from the Wyoming Legislature, thus the Game and fish is taxed with generating their own income to sustain them. "And so the department most responsible for managing wildlife and hunting needs to raise between $8 million and $10 million without having the luxury of a stream of state taxpayer money."http://trib.com/opinion/will-wyoming-be-priced-out-of-a-way-of-life/article_258910a6-681c-5978-8dde-00eb50b5ee4b.html).
Another problem that they face is that they must also manage a lot of money intensive species such as the black footed ferret, brown bears, and many non-game fish and aquatic species to name a few. The problem with this is that they must manage those species as per the federal government, but they don't make any money from these conservation projects from licenses and fees.
The article below explains all of the options that the WY G&F has come up with to reduce the costs to the sportsmen.
http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/news-1000952.aspx

Furthermore, I think that you should take a look at your own state's out of state license fees. Though they generally are not more than states like WY, MT, and ID they are still high and out price many people. For instance I just forked over more than $180.00 to hunt birds here this season, in comparison I only pay $115.00 for an out of state license to hunt birds in South Dakota where the populations are tens of times stronger! Now tell me that is not RAPE!!!

[ELKBURGER]

It was stated that IF the changes happen it would be to the 13'/14' season not 12'/13' season so next year sould be the same.

[Bigshooter]

307
I dont care how wy gets its money. But you don't have to be a genius to figure out that you shouldn't spend more money than you have.

[GUscottie]

 

307
I dont care how wy gets its money. But you don't have to be a genius to figure out that you shouldn't spend more money than you have.

 

[307_BOWS]

Bigshooter,
Obviously you do care how WY gets its money because you are complaining that they are proposing raising license fees. I agree with you that it is unfortunate that they are raising the prices and that it may price out a lot of people from having the wonderful opportunity of hunting there. However, I feel that the price increases are a must to continue to create the world class hunting and fishing that the state is known for.

[Bigshooter]

Bigshooter,
Obviously you do care how WY gets its money because you are complaining that they are proposing raising license fees. I agree with you that it is unfortunate that they are raising the prices and that it may price out a lot of people from having the wonderful opportunity of hunting there. However, I feel that the price increases are a must to continue to create the world class hunting and fishing that the state is known for.

I don't care that WY doesn't get any money from tax dollars.  WY 4 years ago did a price increase.  What happened to all of that revenue?  Now just 4 years later they are claiming that they need $8-10 million more in revenue to continue running without going in the red.  If these increases do happen WY will have cut there own throat.  With the couple of bad winters and now a bad drought the deer numbers in Western WY are very low, maybe at an all time low from some of the stuff I have read.  Look what high prices and lack of deer have down to ID.  Or what the high prices have down to MT.  It's a spending issue, not a revenue issue.  Stop spending more money than you have.

[Special T]

I think many of us would take the kind of MGT that WY provides... I did not know that sportsmen pay the whole way in WY. I actually PREFER that we pay the whole way that way our agency would be held more accountable to us.

[Bigshooter]

I think many of us would take the kind of MGT that WY provides... I did not know that sportsmen pay the whole way in WY. I actually PREFER that we pay the whole way that way our agency would be held more accountable to us.

The problem WY has is that sportmans have to pay for everything.  Even if it's for bird watching.  While the guy that is watching the birds pays nothing.

[Special T]

I would guess that the WY game dept is much more attuned to hunting and fishing than the "other" categories. Of all the western states I'm sure it is the most accountable/interested in what the hook and bullet crowd want.

[Hunter Dug]

Ill still pay there fees, and dont care what they charge just be cause its a down right great place to hunt.

[dvolmer]

Ill still pay there fees, and dont care what they charge just be cause its a down right great place to hunt.

I agree.  I am 47 this year and the last year I will be 47 in my lifetime.  If I can afford it I go.  If you wait until you are wealthy and or retired you lost your best hunting years.  I know that at 47 I can hump hills much harder than I will be able to at 65 when retirement comes.  Dont wait and always plan for  the future.  Life is something that goes by while we make plans for the future.  Go now!  Dont give away your todays for a couple of hundred dollars you are scared to spend.

[ELKBURGER]

Ill still pay there fees, and dont care what they charge just be cause its a down right great place to hunt.

I agree.  I am 47 this year and the last year I will be 47 in my lifetime.  If I can afford it I go.  If you wait until you are wealthy and or retired you lost your best hunting years.  I know that at 47 I can hump hills much harder than I will be able to at 65 when retirement comes.  Dont wait and always plan for  the future.  Life is something that goes by while we make plans for the future.  Go now!  Dont give away your todays for a couple of hundred dollars you are scared to spend.

Well Said.

[actionshooter]

Ill still pay there fees, and dont care what they charge just be cause its a down right great place to hunt.

I agree.  I am 47 this year and the last year I will be 47 in my lifetime.  If I can afford it I go.  If you wait until you are wealthy and or retired you lost your best hunting years.  I know that at 47 I can hump hills much harder than I will be able to at 65 when retirement comes.  Dont wait and always plan for  the future.  Life is something that goes by while we make plans for the future.  Go now!  Dont give away your todays for a couple of hundred dollars you are scared to spend.

I agree, I don't like it, but thats how I have been playing it.

[TheHunt]

Totally agree

[Ghost Hunter]

  I hate to see the increase, but it likely won't change what my plans are.  This is the 3rd year I will be going for a WY general elk hunt.  Added deer this year.  Just wish they would put an effort into improving the weather conditions for a good snow hunt

[huntnnw]

I look at it as what are your priorties? mine are hunting..its a hell of alot cheaper to spend 7 days in WY chasing elk in Sept than planning a trip to Hawaii and Ill tell u what I would much rather be in Wy than HI

[Bean Counter]

Good thoughts guys. Thank you to all for the encouragement to grow a pair and quit the bitchin'. I decided to buy points for elk, deer, and pronghorn. I figured that I have up to two years to decide that it was a waste of $120 and I may be glad I put in. For now it seems that states that are in play for me  are NM, CO, AZ, and WY. However, NV, UT, ID, MT, WA will be off my list due to either wolves, cost, or drive distance.

Now I have to figure out how you guys put in for all the early states at the same time and handle the possibility of being drawn in multiple states with overlapping tags. 

[huntnnw]

what I have researched for WY elk is to apply everyyear for the easy to draw hunts and be able to hunt every year to every other year or wait 5 and apply every 5 and hunt good areas

[Bigshooter]

Good thoughts guys. Thank you to all for the encouragement to grow a pair and quit the bitchin'. I decided to buy points for elk, deer, and pronghorn. I figured that I have up to two years to decide that it was a waste of $120 and I may be glad I put in. For now it seems that states that are in play for me  are NM, CO, AZ, and WY. However, NV, UT, ID, MT, WA will be off my list due to either wolves, cost, or drive distance.

Now I have to figure out how you guys put in for all the early states at the same time and handle the possibility of being drawn in multiple states with overlapping tags. 

I wouldn't worry about that.  I apply for about 20 tags every year.  And I can't remember drawing more than two tags in a year.  And only once have I had tags overlaped.

[carpsniperg2]

Yeah I just spent the 120 as well for wy. Need to start building, it seems like a lot of the good elk units take about 5 points. I have only hunted lopes over there. I am going to build lope points for a trophy unit as well as deer.

[Bean Counter]

what I have researched for WY elk is to apply everyyear for the easy to draw hunts and be able to hunt every year to every other year or wait 5 and apply every 5 and hunt good areas

I've been looking up outfitters. I see lots of pics of clients with 280" bulls on the ground, but only a few with 320-330". I think I'd rather wait. 

[Hunter Dug]

I am currently maxed out with points in elk and antelope.  Typically we draw the G-unit (one the best western units) for deer every two to three years.  Never had tag soup, always have had shots on multipule quality animals, I just cant see how that is not worth paying for.

[elkoholic]

Got My points for lope's and deer.

[6x6in6]

what I have researched for WY elk is to apply everyyear for the easy to draw hunts and be able to hunt every year to every other year or wait 5 and apply every 5 and hunt good areas

I've been looking up outfitters. I see lots of pics of clients with 280" bulls on the ground, but only a few with 320-330". I think I'd rather wait. 

That's correct.  Their are very units that will produce a 330+ bull that is less than a 5 year year wait.