The 11% excise tax has existed since 1937 and supports habitat improvement, hunter access, wildlife research, and hunter education. I agree that many, many taxes, government programs, agencies, bureaucracies could be reduced and/or eliminated. In this case the tax is only paid by sportsmen and it largely benefits sportsmen...not sure it gets much more fair when it comes to taxes 
Without this tax the cost of wildlife management would just shift to tag and license fees which would have a huge impact on the little guy who would struggle immensely to even buy a resident deer tag (more so than at current prices). Remember where game populations in the couple of decades prior to Pittman-Robertson...virtually depleted.
Just curious...when you mention this tax was nearly eliminated...what are you referencing? A certain batch of archery products were going to be exempt from this tax or the whole law was going to be repealed??
Sorry! In my usually rant form I did not clarify very well. I have a habit of doing that
The FET on archery goods has only been around since 1975. And really it had no chance of developing until Fred Bear got behind the project. His involvement peaked when an agreement was made that 50% of all funds collected by the government from archery manufacturers was to be used for the development of public range acquisition, construction and bowhunting safety education. For the first few years after the archery manufacturers amendment to the P-R act was approved everyone involved thought this was a given. But, in fact it was not! As usual some little pee-on bureaucrat changed the wording from "Shall' be used" to "May' be used". As a result just a modicum amount actually made it for the purpose it was intended.
It took until the late 90's for the issue of misuse and misrepresentation to hit law makers. By this time hundreds of millions had been taken from the intended purpose of the 50% with little or no accountability. As such the archery manufacturers found themselves in the unusual situation of having a little power in the direction going forward. We could have reduced the 11% FET an appropriate amount, or we could let it ride and expand the things it was used for. And of course we let our money ride 100%. Using a large portion of the allotted money for the "Archery In Schools Program
(NASP)" where a handful of manufactures make an absolute killing and the rest of us fund the project. I don't know about you, but I have not seen any new archery ranges appear in my neighborhood, few Washington schools allow the archery program, and I have seen very little improvement in bowhunting/archery related education locally. If this portion of the Archery tax had been eliminated bowhunters and archers from all over the country would see it in slower rates of pricing growth and/or increases in archery related jobs.
The last meeting I went to the discussion came about how to use all the money we were receiving from the archery portion of P-R. I walked out after not being allowed to speak when the discussion started progressing about adding Jungle Gyms and other playground equipment to the proposed range sites so parents of multiple children could have a place for the whole family to play while one or two used the archery range. Is this really what bowhunters money should be used for? If their is so much in the coffer we can waste it on Jungle Gyms I think we could reduce the amount of FET collected. Maybe Easton and Mathews can start building those items so they can continue to have their monopoly on more FET purchased items
Bob Eastman was the only guy who really went on the attack to make some sense of it all. And for his efforts he was basically booted out of the organization
There was some positive movement in correcting some wrongs related to archery FET during the add-on to the American Jobs Creation Act of 2005. That was a positive for all as it closed loop holes in the importation of arrow shafts balancing the playing field with domestic manufacturing a little bit. It also relieved the tax burden on youth arrows and bows that would not be considered appropriate for hunting. May be the only good thing that came from that legislation. I think Paul Ryan had a large hand in helping with this!
It is true that manufacturers are technically just collectors' of the FET taxes. But just like most taxes that is just a shell game to make the slaves of government feel less like the slaves they are. When is enough enough?
