Wildlife wants to raise hunting and other licenses

The Nevada Wildlife Division is calling for big increases in nearly every category of hunting, fishing and boating licenses and fees.

The basic hunting license for adults would rise $5 to $29, and the basic adult fishing license would increase $4 to $25 a year.

And, for the first time, the state would begin to charge American Indians and disabled veterans for their annual licenses.

Wildlife Director Terry Crawforth said the increases are needed to support his department's programs, which receive almost no general fund money.

He said the decision to charge American Indians and disabled veterans is designed to at least recover the cost to the department of issuing the licenses. But they would still pay far less -- $9 a year -- than those buying a regular license. Crawforth predicted the number of American Indians seeking those licenses would go down.

"A lot of them are traditionally issued to people who don't hunt or fish," he said, pointing out the licenses are renewed automatically each year. "This will reduce it to those who actually hunt or fish."

Altogether, the increases would generate more than $3 million annually to help balance Wildlife's $24 million-a-year budget.

In addition, Crawforth told the Senate Finance-Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee that Wildlife has proposed a system to increase those fees annually, instead of making Wildlife return to the Legislature every two years. He pointed out the last general fee increases were approved in 1997. Using that index, hunting licenses would increase $1 a year through 2009.

Increases would also be applied to junior and senior hunting and fishing licenses and to servicemen, who have traditionally gotten a break. Most of those categories now pay only $5 or $6 a year. All would be bumped up to $9 a year.

Non-resident licenses would also cost more. Hunting licenses would increase $27 for non-Nevadans to $138, while non-resident fishing licenses would rise $12 to $63.

The plan also includes increases in the charge for boat titles, annual decals and other services -- an average of about 33 percent.

Crawforth told lawmakers most county advisory boards as well as some sportsmen's groups are backing the increases.

He also said non-residents are becoming a larger and larger segment of those who hunt in Nevada, and pointed out the number of resident hunters in the state has been declining since 1995, while non-resident licensees have doubled in number. Department projections show there will be more non-resident hunters than resident licensees by 2004 -- 17,291 versus 15,011.

Overall, however, he said total licenses are growing slowly.

"Most states are experiencing some significant downtrends in license sales," he said.

That combined with the rising cost of operating wildlife programs, he said, will continue to cause problems in funding Wildlife.

"In the long term, we are going to have to find some other vehicle to fund wildlife conservation," he told lawmakers.