Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991 TAG: 9102190034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Already gone is $1.2 million from the boat registration fund - $600,000 this year and an equal amount next.
That money is provided by boaters who pay their registration fees with the good faith that it will be used for boat ramps, boat safety programs and other boating-related expenditures.
The $1.2 million is headed for the General Fund, with the Wilder people saying they simply are borrowing it. Few people expect to see it returned.
The travesty here is the fact that the game and fish department is a special-funding agency, which means its finances are provided by the people who buy hunting and fishing licenses, who register boats, who voluntarily contribute to the non-game program, who pay a federal excise tax on sporting equipment. Even though it receives nothing in the way of general tax funds, the agency's money is being diverted to other state programs at a time when game, fish and boat programs are starving for money.
The $1.2 million isn't the only raid on boating funds. Other examples, some successful, some not:
Smith Mountain Lake Advisory Board, $9,000.
Potomac River aquatic plant control, $107,000.
Richmond Renaissance for the James River Discovery program, $100,000.
No one is saying these aren't worthy causes. It simply is wrong to fund them with game and fish department money.
Why is boating money being siphoned when hunting and fishing funds appear to be safer?
The federal government has a law that says it won't give Virginia matching hunting and fishing funds if they are diverted to purposes other than those administered by the game and fish department. Earlier this year, the feds threatened to withhold $10 million from the state because of what they viewed as improper diversions planned by state lawmakers.
The boating fund doesn't have that kind of protection. While there is a state law that says boating funds aren't to be used for anything but boating, the budget bill overrides it.
This leaves outdoor sportsmen with a couple of options: Press for federal legislation to help protect state boating funds or get mad.
The Virginia Wildlife Federation sent out a mid-January news release that was headed "Sportsmen riled by Governor's Proposal to Divert Game Dept. Funds."
Maybe a few have been riled, but the truth is most have been surprisingly apathetic about the hands reaching into their wallets.
"I don't know if they went to sleep or what," said Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke. He has successfully guided a bill through the General Assembly that would let the game and fish department keep the interest it earns on hunting and fishing money rather than relinquishing it to the General Fund, as now is the case.
A couple years ago, when the Georgia Legislature withheld funds from a hunting and fishing license increase, sportsmen in that state made life so miserable for politicians that they not only returned the $1.2 million requested by the state game and fish department, but threw in an additional $350,000.
"Public outrage was felt immediately by every politician and public official mentioned," said Bill Vanderford, a Georgia outdoor writer. "Legislators' phones rang constantly."
Phones in Virginia have been strangely quiet.
When the Virginia Wildlife Federation protested, it said Elizabeth Haskell, secretary of natural resources, replied that the game and fish department "should be able to transfer the funds without significant impacts to their operations." After all, capital outlay projects simply could be delayed until finances permit their resumption.
Those were fighting words, but sportsmen turned the other cheek.
by CNB