The situation is the same here in Nevada also. We have tons of land, but very little rain, and the habitat is less than desirable. Thats the reason tags cost so much. The Department of Wildlife has to get money somehow, and the state is broke in the first place. The Department of Wildlife gets very little funding from the state general fund, and we have no income tax either, so the majority of the operating funds comes from the sale of licenses, tags, stamps, permits for guiding, etc.

The bottom line is that when a state is 89% public land, there are not very many people who are into wildlife management on the private end of things. What little private land there is - is tied up in hay fields and cattle operations. Ranchers are not going to spend the time to try to manage wildlife AND livestock. There is no guarentee that people will buy a hunt, but people have to buy beef. So, no private land to hunt, except in very isolated circumstances, leads to the state running the wildlife, which leads to the state controlling the wildlife population through cost. Supply and demand, there is not enough supply to satisfy everyone's demands, so prices go up, welcome to Economics 101.