Oklahoma House of Representatives

Mike W. Ray, Media Division Director

March 10, 2003

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Legislation to increase two dozen hunting and fishing license fees to generate cash for the state Wildlife Conservation Department passed the House of Representatives in a split vote Monday.

House Bill 1663 would result in a net increase of about $3.3 million to the department, a House fiscal analyst calculated. Four new fees proposed in HB 1663, which would have targeted youngsters 14-17 years of age, were deleted by the House.

The Wildlife Department's operating budget for the current fiscal year is $28.9 million. The agency receives no appropriated funds from the Legislature. Instead, it generates $13 million from sales of annual hunting and fishing licenses, and receives $10 million in federal reimbursement of excise taxes on sales of firearms, ammunition, sporting goods and outdoor equipment.

About 5 percent of the agency's budget is derived from agricultural and grazing leases plus royalties on oil and gas leases on department-owned land; the agency receives a small portion of state motor vehicle registration fees; interest income on savings produces about 9 percent of the department's budget; and miscellaneous income from magazine subscriptions, sales of Outdoor Oklahoma caps and patches, plus fines, contributes 5 percent of the budget.

Rep. Dale Smith, principal author of HB 1663, recalled that efforts in each of the last three years to earmark a portion of state sales tax proceeds for the Department of Wildlife Conservation have snagged in House/Senate conference committee negotiations.

Smith, a Democrat from St. Louis who is chairman of the House Committee on Wildlife, indicated the Wildlife Department needs more money for a variety of reasons.

For example, department Assistant Director Richard Hatcher said the agency has a fleet of approximately 300 vehicles for use by its game rangers and wildlife biologists. Those vehicles are driven an average of 150,000 miles before they are replaced, "and that mileage is going up 10,000 to 15,000 miles a year, of late," Hatcher said Monday. In a related matter, he noted that the agency's fuel bills are soaring because pump prices have been going up.

Because it must balance its budget and constitutionally is prohibited from spending beyond its means, Hatcher said, the Wildlife Conservation Department has not filled 24 vacant staff positions. The agency's budget has grown 13 percent since 1994 but inflation has increased 25.4 percent during that same period, he said. 

Raising license fees "is the only alternative we have to shore up that department," Smith told his colleagues Monday. Prices for Oklahoma's hunting and fishing licenses have not changed in nine years, Hatcher confirmed.

Rep. M.C. Leist, D-Morris, equated the proposed fee hikes to the cost of a box of shotgun shells. Even if the increases are adopted, Smith and Hatcher both said Oklahoma's licenses will still be on a par with license fees in neighboring states. For example, resident annual hunting and fishing licenses in Oklahoma cost $11.50 now and would be boosted to $19 by HB 1663. In comparison, Hatcher said, Kansas charges $19.75, Texas charges $19, and New Mexico charges $28.

Further, Arkansas and Missouri both earmark one-eighth of a cent of state sales tax for their wildlife departments, Smith informed the House. Hatcher said Missouri's levy generates $90 million annually and the levy in Arkansas produces about $30 million per year.

In answer to a question from Rep. Frank Davis, R-Guthrie, Smith said the Wildlife Department has $44 million in savings, but the money is in a lifetime trust and the principal cannot be touched.

In response to another question, Rep. Joe Hutchison, a Jay Democrat who is the principal co-author of HB 1663, said the Wildlife Department owns land throughout Oklahoma but pays taxes on that acreage. Hatcher said the department owns approximately 280,000 acres in Oklahoma and pays property taxes of about 65 cents per acre.

"Our surveys tell us that public land open to hunting is the No. 1 concern of Oklahoma hunters," Hatcher said. "Finding a place to hunt is getting harder and harder" because of the amount of land that is being leased, he said. Approximately 2 percent of the land mass in the Plains states is public land open to hunting and fishing, compared to 40-80 percent of the Rocky Mountain states, Hatcher said.

House Bill 1663 passed the House by a vote of 71-28 and was transmitted to the Senate, where it is sponsored by Sen. Frank Shurden, D-Henryetta, chairman of the Senate Committee on Tourism and Wildlife.