GOOD NEWS PA. HUNTERS.
Hunters facing hike in license fee
By Martha Raffaele
The Associated Press
o3/28/06
HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania hunters could pay $10 to $15 more for an adult hunting license under legislation designed to boost state game revenues.
Rep. Bruce Smith, chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, said the current revenue from licenses and fees does not cover the state game commission's operating costs.
The commission does not get any funding from state tax revenues.
Smith, R-York, is introducing two bills with varying fee increases which would take effect July 1, 2007. One would raise the basic adult resident hunting license from $19 to $29; the other would raise the fee to $34.
Smith acknowledged that the prospect for either bill's passage is uncertain in an election year. He is not seeking re-election.
"These two bills ... are a starting point. They are not carved in stone. No one enjoys paying more," Smith said.
The state sold more than 1 million licenses during the 2004-05 fiscal year.
Smith, one of only two House members sponsoring the legislation, was joined at a Capitol news conference by representatives of several sportsmen's groups. He noted that the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs voted last fall to support a hunting-license fee increase.
Ted Onufrak, president of the sportsmen's federation, said he was disappointed that more legislators who hunt are not supporting Smith.
"It is our hope that others will also do the right thing and show their support and commitment to keeping the game commission adequately funded," Onufrak said.
The game commission has cut services over the years to compensate for gas-price increases and other rising costs, spokesman Jerry Feaser said.
The agency has left 66 of 732 salaried job vacant, shut down regional toll-free numbers, and halved the number of pheasants it raises for hunters from 200,000 to 100,000 birds a year, he said.
"We want to be able to conduct hunter and trapper education courses and other wildlife programs," Feaser said. "We want to be able to respond to calls about poaching and other violations."
Rep. Edward G. Staback, the ranking Democrat on Smith's committee, said he would have a hard time supporting a hunting license increase, given that hunters in his district frequently complain the commission's deer management policy has excessively thinned the herd.
"How am I going to vote for a hunting license increase and try to justify it? It isn't going to work. You've got to start paying some attention to what the hunting public (is) trying to tell you," said Staback, D-Lackawanna.
Smith is also introducing a third bill that would create a $20 conservation stamp that both hunters and non-hunters -- such as hikers and bird-watchers -- would have to purchase to use state game lands.
Lawmakers considered creating such a stamp before approving the last license-free increase, but sportsmen's organizations opposed the idea, Smith said.
"Many of their members view the gamelands as belonging to sportsmen and hunters. They want it to stay completely under the jurisdiction of sportsmen and hunters," he said