Senate Raises Fees For Hunting

A financial lifeboat for the Fish and Game Department won the narrowest of final legislative victories on Thursday, but lawmakers warned the second phase of the rescue could face an even tougher road.

Lt. Gov. Butch Otter had to break at 17-17 tie in the Senate to send the House-passed increase of $6 for elk and deer tags to Gov. Phil Batt, who has endorsed the proposal.

It was the first time in at least four years that Otter has been called on to break a tie. Sen. John Hansen, R-Idaho Falls, was called away from the Capitol by a family crisis.

The increase raises only $1.4 million of the $7.6 million the commission has determined is needed to bring resource management and other programs up to the level Idaho sportsmen want.

The new money, being raised when the tag fees go up on May 1, will finance beefed-up poaching enforcement, mandatory hunter harvest reports and deer and elk herd surveying and monitoring. A dramatic decline in nonresident hunters in recent years has forced $3 million in program cuts to keep the department in the black.

The commission plans state-wide meetings and hearings throughout the rest of this year to generate broad support for a yet-to-be-determined second phase of revenue increases to raise the remaining $6.2 million.

Without it, Director Steve Mealey has said major program reductions will be required.

But critics have warned that splitting the financial bailout into two phases, forcing lawmakers to vote twice, was a recipe for disaster.

“I think they probably need $7 million,” Democratic Sen. Clint Stennett of Ketchum said. “But I think their leadership fell down. They should have come in here, told the truth and asked for what they need. If they need the money, they should be asking for the money.”

Fearing phase two will be rejected, Stennett predicted that all the stopgap $1.4 million tag increase “is going to do is get the department deeper into its problem.”