Price Increase for Utah Hunting and Fishing
As many of you in Utah are probably aware, a proposal has been approved to increase the fees we pay for our hunting and fishing privileges. This proposal now goes before the legislature for approval before it goes into effect. Following is an e-mail sent from Trout Unlimited with the e-mail addresses of the legislators that set the DWR budget.
As you have probably heard the DWR is proposing to raise the cost of licenses in 2007 to cover a DWR shortfall. It is a sad state when they only get 8% of their funding from the general fund and the rest entirely comes from hunters and fishermen, unlike most of the other state agencies. In anattempt to be heard by our representatives– lets all take a minute to writeemails to the list below and explain that the DWR benefits more than just us and that the percentage of the DWR budget should be increased to a reasonable level. In a time when the numbers of lic holders in Utah is decreasing an increase in fees is not the answer to the budget problems for the DWR and could just widen the gap in the years to come. TU presidents and others please send this out to anyone with any interests in the outdoors.
Ed Kent (Utah Angler Coalition) emailed me a list of the people on theNatural Resources Appropriations subcommittee, these people decide on the DWR budget. Let’s all find a minute and send each of them an email stating that the 8% of the DWR budget that comes from the general fund needs to be increased instead of raising hunting and fishing lic fees like proposed.
Sen. Thomas V. Hatch, Co Chair thatch@utahsenate.org
Rep. Bradley T. Johnson, Co Chair bradjohnson@utah.gov
Rep. Carl W. Duckworth cduckworth@utah.gov
Sen. Beverly Ann Evans bevevans@ubtanet.com
Rep. Ben C. Ferry bcferry@utah.gov
Rep. Kerry W. Gibson kwgibson@utah.gov
Rep. James R. Gowans jgowans@utah.gov
Sen. Parley G. Hellewell parley@parleyhellewell.com
Rep. Rebecca D. Lockhart blockhart@utah.gov
Rep. John G. Mathis jmathis@utah.gov
Rep. Ronda Rudd Menlove rmenlove@utah.gov
Rep. Michael E. Noel mikenoel@kanab.net
4 comments January 17th, 2006
