Inslee: No New Taxes after Car Tab Initiative Passes, Hello Higher User Fees!

[pianoman9701]

I am willing to bet the number 1 spending issue with WDFW is feeding the giant bureaucracy at the top of the agency. Need to let the knowledgeable men & women with boots on the ground make all the decisions & feed the bureaucrats to the wolves!

This may account for a few million, certainly not the whole shortfall. I'm personally unsure on how top-heavy the department is, so I can't comment on that. But there's a lot of spending going on somewhere. I'd like to see a breakdown of the budget request.

[Special T]

Can we just get some champions for the hunting and fishing community voted into high offices?

There are some sportsmen champions. Are there enough? Does your local state rep of senator know your a sportsmen? Have you told them what sportsmen org you belonged to? Have you given $ to that person?

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[grundy53]

Where do you think the choke point is? Who can unclog it? How?

The only fix is significant general fund (taxes) money. WDFW can't operate as a user funded agency. I am old enough to remember the old Dept of Fisheries and Dept of Wildlife and their budget issues. DOF was flush with money because they were funded with general fund money because of the commercial fishing aspect, your recreational fishing license dollars went into the general fund. DOW was about as poor as could be because they were mainly user funded from hunting licenses. You would actually have Wildlife Officers using hand-me-down gear that was previously used by Fisheries Officers.

During the recession there was less general fund money so the legislature made WDFW more user funded and made it so all hunting/fishing fees went into the wildlife fund. Now the general fund has a good chunk of money in it however it's getting sucked out to fund education due to the Supreme Court McCleary decision and now to replace the loss revenue from I-976.

Other states seem to manage being funded solely by license sales...

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[huntnphool]

I have no doubt that costs to run WDFW have increased since 2011. I would be willing to pay more in license fees, but it would be easier to stomach if there was an indication that the department cares about hunters. If they do care about hunters (and I’m sure many of their employees do), they need to do a better job in demonstrating and communicating that they do.

It’s hard not to conclude they care about wolf lovers and hunters to an equivalent degree. If so, then go after an equivalent amount of funding from the wolf lovers and leave hunting license fees alone.

Well said.

And so they always peddle the whole, "see we have to cut your favorite programs" BS.  How about tightening your belt and reducing government expenditures?  Leeches.

It's also why I laugh when people try to justify auction tags by describing the revenue from those tags as "critical" or "important" or "needed" for conservation...golly gee, sure glad we got that $50k...otherwise we couldn't do that critical project because in our $437 million budget we just never would have found 50k...

Hey, that 50k pays francine maddens salary for 2 months!  That poor woman is probably driving around in a 2 year old bentley like some sort of destitute third worlder right now.

  touché

[jstone]

There are more and more people moving into this state. That means more cars. Not all cars are fuel efficient. What is the percentage of electric?
I would like to know how much gas is used a year in this state compared to other years? Any ideas on how to find that information

[pianoman9701]

Google is your friend.
Motor Gasoline consumption by State in 2017 (Thousands of barrels)

https://ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/ksah/energy/18ener6a.pdf

It's not clear if this is based on 42 gallons per barrel of crude, which equals 19 gallons of gasoline, or on 55 gallons of gasoline per barrel.

[pianoman9701]

So, we consume 66,923,000 barrels of gasoline in WA. So, that's either 26.769 billion gallons or roughly half of that, 13.384 billion gallons of gasoline

[ribka]

Every Tesla owner should pay a yearly $5000 wolf tax fee or registration tabs

[Bob33]

Every Tesla owner should pay a yearly $5000 wolf tax fee or registration tabs

LOL. How much for Subaru owners?

[syoungs]

Every Tesla owner should pay a yearly $5000 wolf tax fee or registration tabs

LOL. How much for Subaru owners?

Woah there, I take my subaru predator hunting, is there going to be some sort of exchange rate for turned in coyotes!!

[Bob33]

Hunting license, or $200 license plate. Your choice.

[idahohuntr]

I have no doubt that costs to run WDFW have increased since 2011. I would be willing to pay more in license fees, but it would be easier to stomach if there was an indication that the department cares about hunters. If they do care about hunters (and I’m sure many of their employees do), they need to do a better job in demonstrating and communicating that they do.

It’s hard not to conclude they care about wolf lovers and hunters to an equivalent degree. If so, then go after an equivalent amount of funding from the wolf lovers and leave hunting license fees alone.

Well said.

And so they always peddle the whole, "see we have to cut your favorite programs" BS.  How about tightening your belt and reducing government expenditures?  Leeches.

It's also why I laugh when people try to justify auction tags by describing the revenue from those tags as "critical" or "important" or "needed" for conservation...golly gee, sure glad we got that $50k...otherwise we couldn't do that critical project because in our $437 million budget we just never would have found 50k...

Hey, that 50k pays francine maddens salary for 2 months!  That poor woman is probably driving around in a 2 year old bentley like some sort of destitute third worlder right now.

Exactly!

[bigtex]

Where do you think the choke point is? Who can unclog it? How?

The only fix is significant general fund (taxes) money. WDFW can't operate as a user funded agency. I am old enough to remember the old Dept of Fisheries and Dept of Wildlife and their budget issues. DOF was flush with money because they were funded with general fund money because of the commercial fishing aspect, your recreational fishing license dollars went into the general fund. DOW was about as poor as could be because they were mainly user funded from hunting licenses. You would actually have Wildlife Officers using hand-me-down gear that was previously used by Fisheries Officers.

During the recession there was less general fund money so the legislature made WDFW more user funded and made it so all hunting/fishing fees went into the wildlife fund. Now the general fund has a good chunk of money in it however it's getting sucked out to fund education due to the Supreme Court McCleary decision and now to replace the loss revenue from I-976.

Other states seem to manage being funded solely by license sales...

Very few do. And the ones that do are inland states that don't have to deal with the myriad and costly fisheries issues. Just from the few random states that I could find:

Idaho Fish & Game: 34% of their budget funded by license fees
Texas Parks & Wildlife: 30% of their budget funded by license fees (not including park passes)
Colorado Parks & Wildlife: 54% of their budget funded by license fees however this includes Park passes since Colorado Parks merged with CO Wildlife
Oregon Fish & Wildlife: 26% of their budget funded by license fees
South Dakota Wildlife & Parks: 50% of their wildlife/fisheries budget funded by license fees
California Fish & Wildlife: 21% of their budget funded by license fees
Nevada Wildlife: 45% of their budget funded by license fees

[hunter399]

I have no doubt that costs to run WDFW have increased since 2011. I would be willing to pay more in license fees, but it would be easier to stomach if there was an indication that the department cares about hunters. If they do care about hunters (and I’m sure many of their employees do), they need to do a better job in demonstrating and communicating that they do.

It’s hard not to conclude they care about wolf lovers and hunters to an equivalent degree. If so, then go after an equivalent amount of funding from the wolf lovers and leave hunting license fees alone.

Well said.

And so they always peddle the whole, "see we have to cut your favorite programs" BS.  How about tightening your belt and reducing government expenditures?  Leeches.

It's also why I laugh when people try to justify auction tags by describing the revenue from those tags as "critical" or "important" or "needed" for conservation...golly gee, sure glad we got that $50k...otherwise we couldn't do that critical project because in our $437 million budget we just never would have found 50k...

Hey, that 50k pays francine maddens salary for 2 months!  That poor woman is probably driving around in a 2 year old bentley like some sort of destitute third worlder right now.

Exactly!

You mean francine maddens 1.2 million to her conservation group.coexist for animals .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/

https://www.capitalpress.com/state/washington/washington-s-wolf-peacemaker-ends-her-tenure/article_5faa8418-9961-5af3-85e3-525d3eabdc70.html

The department signed the Washington, D.C.-based Madden to a nearly $1.2 million contract in 2015 and to a $425,000 extension last year. Her in-person services cost $8,000 a day, plus travel expenses. She previously had an $82,000 contract to write a report for the department on social conflicts over wolves.

Pretty spendy that for sure.

[JimmyHoffa]

No wonder she's a wolf advocate, sounds like she is one.