The steep price was to deter everyone from getting the tag,thus keeping down over crowding problems. Now I'm not totally for a $170 on top of my other fees, but about six years ago at the public imput meetings, we(the people) brought up the idea of gettinr rid of the weapons choice crap, like so many other states have. We( and I was there) told them that as most hunters do,"we just want to be out there", and that harvesting was the number one priority. So through the last six years of talking with the dept on this matter, this is what they came up with. And with it being a raffle I think that'll leave the choice up to the individual if they're willing to pay the fee then they put in for it. Like Zen said the funding we give them is how they pay for the wrdens and such, and while I am against giving the Goobermint endless funds, I do hope maybe this will help fund a couple more Wardens to help police the CRAP that goes on out there....my two cents