(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked those attending their spring county hearings and online if it’s users would support increases in license fees or a state sales tax increase as the department looks to increase funding for its programming.
Nearly 76% of respondents supported a one-eight of 1% increase in sales tax to fund general conservation programs including wildlife management, fisheries management and/or conservation law enforcement activities.
There was similar support for a $6 increase to the inland waters trout stamp from the current $10 price. Results were nearly 50-50 for a 50% increase in hunting, fishing and trapping license fees to support wildlife management, fisheries management and/or conservation law enforcement activities while users were opposed to a 75% increase and were supporting of a 25% increase.
The spring hearing question results were gathered at county meetings April 13 and online from April 13-15. The results will be considered at the Conservation Congress convention in may and then will be sent to the DNR and Natural Resources Board in June.
The questions come after the DNR requested spending authority for $1.1 million for core work of the Bureau of Wildlife Management and nearly $2.9 million for Bureau of Fisheries Management work from the state’s Joint Committee on Finance by April 12.
The department said in a letter to the committee that the Fish and Wildlife Account of the Conservation Fund has been in a structural deficit since Financial Year 2019 and it has used transfers from the Forestry Account of the Conservation Fund to cover the deficit but “the expenditure authority for the Wildlife Management Bureau was not correspondingly adjusted to meet the business needs of the department and the public.”
The department then outlined the cost if it did not receive the spending authority, including reduced pheasant stocking by 10,000 birds, reducing surveys for deer, grouse, pheasants and prairie chicken populations along with waterfowl, mourning doves and woodcock. The department would also need to cut maintenance costs by 34% for public use facilities including parking lots, trails, access lanes, property boundary postings and wildlife visitor centers.
The fisheries costs included $1.4 million for stocking of fish, nearly $700,000 for monitoring and assessments and nearly $800,000 for habitat management. That includes a 70% reduction in muskellunge stocking and 45% for walleye.
“A lack of additional expenditure authority is forcing Fisheries Management to make difficult and time-sensitive decisions about core work duties that can or cannot be completed in FY 2027,” DNR Secretary Karen Hyun wrote in a letter to the Joint Finance Committee.
