Article in todays Olympian here
http://www.theolympian.com/123/story/324950.htmlLawmakers take aim at Fish and Wildlife funds
Adam Wilson
Untangling the money paid by hunters and fishers from the rest of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's budget would be a mammoth task, a new report says.
"There's always been that issue," WDFW business services assistant director Ron McQueen said. "Grappling with the question, given the money that comes in here, where does it go to benefit the people who are paying? That's a very complex issue."
Lawmakers asked for an analysis of where the agency's money comes from and how it is spent.
Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, said lawmakers wanted to raise hunting and fishing license fees to make up for shortfalls in some department accounts.
Others resisted. Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, said she had heard the wildlife account filled with those fees already had been "robbed" to pay for non-sporting programs.
A report on the department's finances was presented to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee this week.
"The intention of the proviso was to get to a clear, defined division of these functions tied to the fees," Pridemore said. "This doesn't appear to provide that."
"The line — this is hunting and fishing and this is other stuff — doesn't seem to be a clean one," analyst John Woolley replied.
The agency has 27 funds that provide $142.6 million a year for 1,680 programs, the report says. Each fund, such as federal salmon recovery money, can have restrictions on how it is spent. Others are mingled.
Further complicating the issue, the report found license sales have dropped off by 400,000 since 1989, to 1.4 million. But revenue from those sales has gone up, to $29.7 million in 2006.
The audit couldn't explain the trend, except to note hunters now buy a single license for deer, elk, cougar and bear; each used to require a separate license.
Auditors did attempt to separate "taking" programs that help support game fish and animals from "non-taking" programs not intended to benefit sports people, Woolley added. They found the agency's activities were about equally divided along those lines.
That was little help to lawmakers.
"The word 'bureaucracy' comes to mind when I listen to all this," Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Kitsap County, said. "It seems to me the Legislature has created part of the dilemma by creating so many restricted accounts."
Asked if there was a way to find out where exactly hunting and fishing fees are spent, Woolley said it would take a more complex accounting system to track the funds and the time spent by agency workers on sporting activities.
The most positive aspect of the report might be the light it sheds on how complex the budget is, McQueen said, adding some misconceptions of the use of license fees have lingered since the departments of game and fish merged in 1994.
"Some people think historically that the wildlife fund can only be used for game, and general fund is used for fish," he said. "I think the … study will be useful in seeing the facts for what they are."
Adam Wilson covers state workers and politics for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-753-1688 or awilson@theolympian.com.
Here is a quote from the comments section.Just frickin perfect. How about us hunting fisherman boycott ALL Fees this year and it will be pretty easy to see where the money was going.
I hit the $350 mark this year between my son and I. fishing shellfish deer tag and pheasant. Have you seen the new mess they call a license? 3 feet long. My son lost has and they wanted 30$ to reprint it. It looks like 3 feet of supermarket reciept but they want $30 for a 16 yr old
So much for trying to keep the kid off drugs. It would be cheaper for me to get him weed and sit him in front of a nintendo. I spend thousands to do what we like every year.
votemout | 01.12.08 - 6:00 pm | #
