Everyone wants to see the PGC audit completed right?

Guess who is causing the delay??? yep the good old USP!!
You gotta wonder why the USP wouldn't want to see the audit completed............

http://www.paoutdoornews.com/articles/2009/01/29/top_news/news01.txt
Copied and pasted from PA outdoor news

Deer audit delay to
freeze license hike









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By Jeff Mulhollem
Editor
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 12:13 PM CST

[/align]Harrisburg - An independent audit of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer-management program has been postponed, according to a key lawmaker, and that will result in a delay of the passage of a hunting-license fee increase.

The audit, which was to have started in March, will not proceed because the company that had agreed to do it, Wildlife Management Institute of Virginia, backed away from the project because it feared being drawn into a lawsuit filed against the Game Commission by the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.

Rep. Ed Staback, D-Lackawanna and Wayne counties, chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, met with Unified leaders late last year and asked the organization to drop the suit to expedite the audit. But they refused to abandoned their challenge to the agency's deer-herd-reduction strategy.

"Their continuing with the lawsuit certainly is going to delay the audit, and the audit being delayed is definitely going to delay the license increase," he said. "I will not start the hunting-license fee-increase process until an audit is under way, but I may not be adverse to negotiating about an increase before then.




[/align]"We can work out the details while the audit is being done.

"But having said all of that, I don't see a hunting license fee increase taking effect until 2010 at the earliest," Staback added. "I just can't see everything that needs to be done occurring before July. And my committee members and I will need to see the results of the audit before voting for any license-fee increase."

Revenue from the license-fee increase - which might boost the cost of an adult resident license from $20 to $32, according to Staback - is seen as vital to the Game Commission. The agency has cut many programs, such as pheasant rearing and stocking,

Still Steve Mohr, a former game commissioner and president of the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, remains defiant.

"We told him (Staback) we couldn't drop the lawsuit because we didn't have the support from our members," he said. "Our membership is vehemently opposed to dropping it because we see no reason that the audit couldn't proceed with our lawsuit."

Regarding delay of a hunting- license fee increase, Mohr scoffed. "I don't think that there are many legislators foolish enough to vote for a hunting-license fee increase now with the state budget in the condition it is," he said. "I don't think a license fee increase is necessary anyway. The commission is sitting on so much natural-gas revenue under the game lands that they ought to be paying us for getting hunting licenses."

Mohr is "irritated" by Game Commission officials' declaration to Staback that they would not "cooperate" with an audit unless the lawsuit was withdrawn. "They shouldn't have that option," he said. "I can't believe Staback is letting them get away with it."

Mohr pointed out that the Unified Sportsmen pledged not to bring Wildlife Institute into its lawsuit, but Staback indicated that was not good enough. "If the lawsuit is being delayed, it is not the fault of the Unified Sportsmen, it is the fault of the lawmakers," he said.

"There is no financial crisis here. The PGC is a wealthy agency, it's just they don't want to reveal their wealth at this time. They aren't fooling anyone - the legislators are very skeptical."

Staback was noncommittal about the seriousness of the Game Commission's financial plight, but he did say he was disappointed that the Unified Sportsmen will not withdraw their lawsuit to let the audit proceed.

"The answers about deer management that the Unifieds are looking for are the same ones the Legislature is seeking," he said. "So now we will wait and see how long it will take the courts to react to their suit.

"But it's not a question of if, but when a deer audit will take place," Staback added. "The only way this issue is ever going to be resolved to hunters' satisfaction is by an independent audit of the commission's management program. This has been dragging on for years."


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