Am I reading this right, we're being charged more $ for absolutely nothing?
Correct, the Legislature tied HR288 to the general fund allocation that the GF was receiving (6 million). If HR288 passed, the legislature would remove the general fund allocation, if the bill failed, nothing changed and the WYGF still retained the current 6 million general fund allocation. Further the original bill asked for the legislature to give the GF commission the authority to raise fees up to the CPI...that was stripped from the bill in the house TRW committee hearing.
Senator Hicks introduced an amendment that would have done away with the tiered license fees and implement a single price for all NR tags, and his proposed increases would have resulted in about a 2-2.5 million budget increase to the Department. It failed 3rd reading on the floor by 6 votes.
The watered down bill passed, so license fees went up, the 6 million from the general fund is gone, and we're paying more for a flat GF budget.
Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers supported the initial bill, along with the bill with the amendment by Senator Hicks.
Once the Hicks amendment was out of the bill, we then opposed the water-downed bill...it made no sense to pass the bill at that point as it didn't increase revenue to the Department, and essentially created a situation where we pay more for, more than likely less, or at best, a flat budget. Would have made more sense to just let the bill fail and keep the 6 million in general funds and keep license fees the same...and that's what BHA tried to do at the end.
Just cant do this stuff alone, and as per usual, everyone was too busy to send an email, make a phone call, etc.
Sad thing is, we only had to swing 6 on the Senate side and the bill with Hick's amendment would have passed.
Dang. Posting bad info and losing money.
