Increased license fees don't faze Virginia hunters

Ken Perrotte's Outdoors column

Date published: 2/15/2007

HERE'S THE GOOD news if you're a hunter or angler monitoring funds available to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Total revenue from all license sales increased by just more than $5 million, rising from $19.85 million in 2005 to $24.9 million in 2006.

Without question this is due to the near across-the-board increase of $5 for every license (except youth licenses) and permit the agency sells.

A VDGIF spreadsheet depicting all categories of permits, licenses and fees shows that total transactions across all categories were 1,584,919 last year, down slightly from 1,585,235 in 2005. The overall numbers should allay, at least for this year, concerns that last year's license fee increases would dramatically deter hunters and anglers.

Department spokeswoman Julia Dixon said: "Fortunately, we saw little buyer resistance after the increase and greatly appreciate the ongoing support of sportsmen and women who understand the importance of their license dollars to wildlife management in Virginia."

Additional good news is that freshwater fishing license (resident, senior resident, and Sportsman's combo) sales rose from 362,591 in 2005 to 368,009 in 2006. The bad news is this number is well down from the 387,052 licenses sold in 2004.

More bad news is that nearly 220,000 adults bought resident big game hunting licenses, a decrease of nearly 2,000 from 2005 to 2006 and nearly 15,000 from just two years ago. Most hunters who buy the basic resident hunting licenses also buy the big game license.

A partially offsetting statistic is that resident junior hunting license sales rose from 1,637 to 2,320.

Resident archery licenses fell from 52,620 to 48,770, but resident crossbow licenses leaped from 14,475 to 20,081.

Gov. Tim Kaine recently proposed an executive amendment to the 2006-2008 Biennial Budget to return all watercraft sales and use taxes to the VDGIF, which could mean up to $2 million next fiscal year. This is money the department was used to getting prior to it being siphoned off in 2002 to help fix problems in the state's general fund.

Between this return of revenue and the increased proceeds from the $5 increase in licenses, the department is seeing a substantial revenue infusion. Still, concerns remain.

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Date published: 2/15/2007