- Joined
- Mar 11, 2001
- Messages
- 70,011
- Reaction score
- 1,007
House approves hike in hunting and fishing fees
7/10/03
SALEM (AP) - A proposal to raise hunting and fishing license fees has made it through the Oregon House, and is headed to the Senate.
Under House Bill 2260, the cost of daily fishing passes will go up by $4 and annual licenses will cost $5 more. Hunting tags will climb by between $5 and $107, depending on the game animal and whether they are purchased by a state resident or nonresident. If approved, the changes would be put into place in January 2004.
The extra $9.7 million or so raised by the bill would pay for biologists and game wardens at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The proposal cleared the House by a 54-to-3 vote and now heads to the Oregon Senate, which endorsed the budget for the wildlife agency in a separate vote Wednesday.
"Even with this fee increase, Oregon fees are near the average for the Western states," said Rep. Wayne Kreiger, R-Gold Beach. The additional money will not increase staffing or programs at the agency, he said.
Instead, the money will help offset $10 million in state general fund dollars that lawmakers shifted away from the department. Without the money, the department estimates it would need to cut as many as 69 positions.
The fee increase will be the second in four years, said agency spokeswoman Anne Pressentin Young. Tag and license prices last went up in 1994 and 2000.
The price hikes were generally supported in a series of public hearings across the state, said Rep. Patti Smith, R-Corbett, whose district includes Hood River County.
"Hundreds of people came and testified," she said. "I'm in a district that relies heavily on the sportfishing industry, and they all said they wanted the fee increase and would pay gladly to keep the services."
Not everybody is thrilled with the plan, however.
"I think it's lousy to put so much on the tourists," said John Garrison, who runs a store and guide service in Sunriver. "To go from $8 to $12 for a daily license is unacceptable."
Some legislators and environmental groups are also upset that the final budget for the department anticipates spending $7 million on a new fish hatchery research center at the mothballed Fall Creek hatchery in the Coast Range west of Corvallis.
The department has plans for what is describes as a state-of-the-art project that could propel Oregon to the forefront of research into the effect of hatchery-bred fish on native and wild strains. Drawings of the center include dormitories, a lunchroom and classrooms, along with an operation hatchery.
"That is a pork project for the senator who ran this particular committee," said Rep. Tom Butler, R-Ontario, referring to Sen. Ken Messerle, R-Coos Bay.
Messerle, whose district includes the Fall Creek hatchery, said the project was proposed by the wildlife agency, not by him, but that he felt its construction would benefit the entire state.
Awbrey Russell, attorney for Oregon Trout, said the center will take money away from stream projects in the Deschutes, Klamath and Lower Columbia basins, and that there was no clear scientific need for the hatchery research center.
7/10/03
SALEM (AP) - A proposal to raise hunting and fishing license fees has made it through the Oregon House, and is headed to the Senate.
Under House Bill 2260, the cost of daily fishing passes will go up by $4 and annual licenses will cost $5 more. Hunting tags will climb by between $5 and $107, depending on the game animal and whether they are purchased by a state resident or nonresident. If approved, the changes would be put into place in January 2004.
The extra $9.7 million or so raised by the bill would pay for biologists and game wardens at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The proposal cleared the House by a 54-to-3 vote and now heads to the Oregon Senate, which endorsed the budget for the wildlife agency in a separate vote Wednesday.
"Even with this fee increase, Oregon fees are near the average for the Western states," said Rep. Wayne Kreiger, R-Gold Beach. The additional money will not increase staffing or programs at the agency, he said.
Instead, the money will help offset $10 million in state general fund dollars that lawmakers shifted away from the department. Without the money, the department estimates it would need to cut as many as 69 positions.
The fee increase will be the second in four years, said agency spokeswoman Anne Pressentin Young. Tag and license prices last went up in 1994 and 2000.
The price hikes were generally supported in a series of public hearings across the state, said Rep. Patti Smith, R-Corbett, whose district includes Hood River County.
"Hundreds of people came and testified," she said. "I'm in a district that relies heavily on the sportfishing industry, and they all said they wanted the fee increase and would pay gladly to keep the services."
Not everybody is thrilled with the plan, however.
"I think it's lousy to put so much on the tourists," said John Garrison, who runs a store and guide service in Sunriver. "To go from $8 to $12 for a daily license is unacceptable."
Some legislators and environmental groups are also upset that the final budget for the department anticipates spending $7 million on a new fish hatchery research center at the mothballed Fall Creek hatchery in the Coast Range west of Corvallis.
The department has plans for what is describes as a state-of-the-art project that could propel Oregon to the forefront of research into the effect of hatchery-bred fish on native and wild strains. Drawings of the center include dormitories, a lunchroom and classrooms, along with an operation hatchery.
"That is a pork project for the senator who ran this particular committee," said Rep. Tom Butler, R-Ontario, referring to Sen. Ken Messerle, R-Coos Bay.
Messerle, whose district includes the Fall Creek hatchery, said the project was proposed by the wildlife agency, not by him, but that he felt its construction would benefit the entire state.
Awbrey Russell, attorney for Oregon Trout, said the center will take money away from stream projects in the Deschutes, Klamath and Lower Columbia basins, and that there was no clear scientific need for the hatchery research center.
