Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993 TAG: 9309160029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Department board members are scheduled to meet Friday in Richmond to discuss license-fee increases, as well as other means to boost the agency's sagging budget. The proposed fees would have to be approved by the General Assembly.
The department likely will ask lawmakers to set a $15 fee for resident hunting and fishing licenses, big-game licenses, muzzle-loading licenses and bowhunting licenses. That increase is projected to net an additional $2.3 million for the department.
It wants a greater increase for the trout license, from the current $6.50 to $12. That could bring in another $500,000.
The fee for the trout license hasn't been increased since 1985, when it was boosted to help the department assume the operation of the Paint Bank and Wytheville hatcheries, which were being abandoned by the federal government.
"Just to operate the trout hatcheries cost us about $1.2 [million] to $1.3 million a year, and right now the trout stamp is yielding about $600,000 a year," said David Whitehurst, deputy director of the department.
The proposed license increases are little more than a short-term effort to keep the agency afloat. They are going to have to be supplemented with some big bucks from other sources.
A likely proposal is to divert the watercraft sales-and-use tax from the General Fund back to where it belongs, the boating fund. In the long haul, that will be more important than a license increase, said Del. Vic Thomas of Roanoke, who is the chairman of a General Assembly committee studying long-term funding for the game and fish department.
"The first thing everyone talks about is going up on licenses," Thomas said. "The hunters and fishermen who buy them are subsidizing the boating program now to the tune of $2 million a year."
There is no way the department is going to wrestle the boat-titling money from the General Fund in one swipe, Thomas said. It must be done in 25 percent increments to succeed, he said.
The board also is considering what it has tagged a "Facilities Use Permit." It would be required of anyone using game and fish department facilities who does not have a hunting or fishing license or a registered boat. That would include hikers, bird-watchers, picnickers and canoers who rightfully would have to help pay for facilities that currently are funded by hunters, fishermen and power-boaters. A $6 annual permit for adults is being discussed.
The board also wants a percentage of the sales tax on outdoor equipment and it wants the chance to place certain items in the General Fund budget that benefit all citizens. An example would be non-game and endangered species projects.
The board's timing is far from favorable, considering the state is facing a $500 million budget shortfall. The only way for even a portion of the requests to be approved is for outdoor sportsmen to make the agency's budget woes a campaign issue this fall.
\ RECORD CATCHES: Two state-record fish have been certified by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Going into the record book is a 14-pound, 7-ounce rainbow trout landed by 15-year-old Michael Lowe of Chilhowie. Lowe caught the 30.4-inch fish on a Berkley Power Bait while fishing Greer's Trout Pond in Smythe County.
Also approved was the 3-pound, 10-ounce spotted bass caught from Claytor Lake by Mike Ritter of Radford.
For additional fishing information, call InfoLine, 981-0100 (New River, 382-0200), then enter code 3016.
by CNB