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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Fish & Game fee increase/surcharge bill clears House Resources Committee

After a hearing that stretched for more than an hour and a half this afternoon, the House Resources Committee has voted to send HB 230, the Fish & Game “price lock” fee increase bill and depredation surcharge, to the full House with a recommendation that it “do pass.” There’s more info on the bill here.

Idaho’s resident fishing and hunting license and tag fees haven’t been raised since 2004, though the department has been pushing for an increase for several years. The “price lock” proposal would allow hunters and anglers who purchase a license every year to lock in current fees and avoid the increase; that’s aimed at helping stabilize revenue for the department, which reports that many purchase licenses some years and not others.

The $5 surcharge was added to the proposal after House Resources Chairman Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, refused to introduce the fee increase bill this year until the department did more to address depredation that game herds cause to farmers and ranchers. The new $5 surcharge would raise an estimated $2 million a year. Of that, $500,000 would go to increase the amount, now at $1 million, that the department pays landowners to compensate for depredation damage caused by wildlife. Another $500,000 would go to efforts to prevent crop damage from big game herds. And $1 million would be for improving access to private land where willing landowners will allow hunting and fishing.

“Fish and Game’s depredation compensation law has been in effect for nearly 30 years,” the Idaho Fish & Game Commission said in a news release. “The new fee not only improves Fish and Game’s ability to compensate for and prevent damages, it also helps the agency provide more and better hunting and fishing opportunity across the state.”

To become law, the bill still needs passage in both the House and Senate and the governor’s signature.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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