Pay Attention: Inslee Appoints Radicals to WDFW Commission

[buckfvr]

The tabs will turn out to be insignificant compared to all the new and increased taxation coming our way from both state and feds, we are in for it from every angle.

[Skyvalhunter]

Back to the OP. Who all sent out emails to their Legislators?

[jeffitz]

Back to the OP. Who all sent out emails to their Legislators?

I did. I signed up with SCI(quick and easy) and sent the emails last week.
I told all my friends about it and hope they did the same

[Southpole]

Back to the OP. Who all sent out emails to their Legislators?

I did.

[CementFinisher]

this is scary.

[Bushcraft]

Back to the OP. Who all sent out emails to their Legislators?

I did. I signed up with SCI(quick and easy) and sent the emails last week.
I told all my friends about it and hope they did the same

Awesome...Thank you!  If you're interested in getting involved with a local chapter, let me know.

[wags]

Make WDFW self funded.

It is essentially self funded.
If all you guys would stop buying every license, tag, drawing application, and every other revenue generating scheme they come up with the Department would finally go broke. Of course it would them become a free-for-all in the woods. Any self respecting enforcement agent would move on to another agency or move out of state. I don't really see how there could be any decent ones left right now anyway.
Just say no to WDFW.

[bigtex]

Make WDFW self funded.

It is essentially self funded.
If all you guys would stop buying every license, tag, drawing application, and every other revenue generating scheme they come up with the Department would finally go broke. Of course it would them become a free-for-all in the woods. Any self respecting enforcement agent would move on to another agency or move out of state. I don't really see how there could be any decent ones left right now anyway.
Just say no to WDFW.

Sorry but this simply isn't true. License fees only make up about 25-30% of WDFW's budget. The rest comes from state taxes, federal funds, and outside entities.

[Special T]

Make WDFW self funded.

It is essentially self funded.
If all you guys would stop buying every license, tag, drawing application, and every other revenue generating scheme they come up with the Department would finally go broke. Of course it would them become a free-for-all in the woods. Any self respecting enforcement agent would move on to another agency or move out of state. I don't really see how there could be any decent ones left right now anyway.
Just say no to WDFW.

Sorry but this simply isn't true. License fees only make up about 25-30% of WDFW's budget. The rest comes from state taxes, federal funds, and outside entities.

And yet very few people including your statement  include the Federal P&R funds as being attached to hunters... when license sales numbers us attached to them and the gets us to just under 50% I belive it was 48% or so...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[bigtex]

Make WDFW self funded.

It is essentially self funded.
If all you guys would stop buying every license, tag, drawing application, and every other revenue generating scheme they come up with the Department would finally go broke. Of course it would them become a free-for-all in the woods. Any self respecting enforcement agent would move on to another agency or move out of state. I don't really see how there could be any decent ones left right now anyway.
Just say no to WDFW.

Sorry but this simply isn't true. License fees only make up about 25-30% of WDFW's budget. The rest comes from state taxes, federal funds, and outside entities.

And yet very few people including your statement  include the Federal P&R funds as being attached to hunters... when license sales numbers us attached to them and the gets us to just under 50% I belive it was 48% or so...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sorry but those numbers are incorrect

WDFW gets about $24 million in PR funds, out of a $437 million budget, or roughly 5% of the total budget comes from PR.

WDFW gets bout $14 million in Dingell Johnson funds (basically PR on the fishing side), for a little over 3% of WDFWs total budget.

If you add license sales, PR, and DJ together you're still not hitting 40% coming from hunters/anglers in license fees or equipment taxes.

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[Bushcraft]

I've heard the "only make up X%" refrain from WDFW leadership policy wonks many times, both in private and in public meetings. They've said it so many times I think they believe the lie.

First, the "only" aspect ticks me off. When they and Fred Koontz used this insultingly minimizing rational during numerous WDAC and BPAG meetings to push the notion time and time again that sportsmen represent "only" a small portion of the state's population and the Dept.'s revenue, and therefore shouldn't really be driving the Dept.'s budgets and policies, my rebuttal then, as it is now, is that if the birds and butterfly crowd don't pay a <bleeping> dime directly into the system in terms of licenses, permits, tags, raffles, etc., ....what in the <bleep> makes them think they should have a seat at the table at all?  Of course, they would get uncomfortable being confronted with some basic math and either abruptly change topics in the interest of time or to protect the delicate sensibilities of the enviro-whackos in the room that were busy wailing and fainting on couches.   And/or they would point to the results of their patently absurd survey that wildly skews the number of people that claim they like watching watching some tweety birds out their kitchen windows when they wash dishes....BOOM!...What do you know?...there's 5 million people in Washington that are non-consumptive wildlife watchers.  Amazing!   

Second, I realize that while not all of the PR and DJ funds come from sportsmen, and there's really no way of knowing what the percentage is of buyers that are subject to the taxes that actually constitute the number of hunters and anglers in this state, it represents a giant boatload of money that should be given a respectable amount of consideration by the Dept. personnel...after all, some of those funds are paying their cushy salaries and assorted benefits, including guaranteed pubic union retirement.

Third, no where in their projections do they account for the private dollars that go into wildlife management every year from consumptive users that farm, ranch, private property owners, and hunting and fishing oriented non-profit groups and their individual members that pour a ton of money towards benefitting fish and wildlife every year....not to mention the compounding economy drivers. I suspect those figures would dwarf WDFW's entire annual budget, to say nothing of what the very small minority of truly dedicated bird and butterfly watchers contribute.

Fourth, a portion of the general fund basket also comes from...ding, ding, ding...hunters and anglers! Many of whom buy very expensive vehicles, trailers, etc., and incredibly expensive boats (think: sales tax).

So no, sportsmen do NOT only represent 25-30% that. That is a *censored* number being used by the non-consumptive crowd (and WDFW leadership that always wants more money) to drive budgets and policies that I would argue are not directly beneficial to their core priority stakeholders in the hunting and fishing communities.

The fact of the matter is that the so-called non-consumptive users barely pay jack squat into the system (compared to hunters and angers) but their outsized influence on the Dept. is because they are very organized, are very well funded, staffed with some full-time employees, are very vocal, and very involved.

In as much as I believe they barely deserve a single seat on the Commission, they are damned motivated to take it over and drive budget and policy decisions to suit their non-consumptive fancies.  Behind closed doors they don't give a damn about consumptive users.

Another point to remember...the Commission hires and fires the Director.

If you thought Unsworth and the cadre of WDFW Inslee loving personnel that steamrolled him was one of the most devastatingly worthless Directors in WDFW history for hunters and anglers and fish and wildlife, then you'll have another thing coming if this monstrously gross imbalance of far-left non-consumptive birds and butterfly appointees is allowed to happen.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very good, very committed people working for WDFW that revere our hunting and fishing heritage and would love nothing more than to see it grow and prosper (and we should rally around them whenever possible)...but there are others within that hold a very, very dim view of consumptive users.

[Skyvalhunter]

One thing to remember that we have heard from the Biologists, Wardens, etc. time and time again both working and retired is that they are afraid to speak up against WDFW policies for fear of losing their jobs and retirement. Now what kind of a organization is that to work for?

[Bushcraft]

One thing to remember that we have heard from the Biologists, Wardens, etc. time and time again both working and retired is that they are afraid to speak up against WDFW policies for fear of losing their jobs and retirement. Now what kind of a organization is that to work for?

Truth!!!

[buckfvr]

One thing to remember that we have heard from the Biologists, Wardens, etc. time and time again both working and retired is that they are afraid to speak up against WDFW policies for fear of losing their jobs and retirement. Now what kind of a organization is that to work for?

Truth!!!

 

Theyre all too comfortable to openly complain.   

[bigtex]

One thing to remember that we have heard from the Biologists, Wardens, etc. time and time again both working and retired is that they are afraid to speak up against WDFW policies for fear of losing their jobs and retirement. Now what kind of a organization is that to work for?

Sadly that's the norm across all levels of government (city, county, state, and federal.) It's a "sit down & shut up", don't speak out mindset. Because if you do speak out guess what, you can kiss that promotion/transfer you wanted goodbye. I can name dozens of people with all sorts of agencies who have been blacklisted from promotions/transfers because they spoke out and went against higher ups.