House votes to let TWRA set hunting, fishing license fees
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency could set its own fees for hunting and fishing licenses under a bill approved by the House on Thursday.
The bill would take the fee-setting responsibility away from the General Assembly and move it to the TWRA’s governing commission. The House amended the bill slightly, so it will have to pass the Senate again before being sent to the governor to become law.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 71-22.
TWRA’s fees were last raised in 1990. At the time the agency promised to make the increase last eight years; by the time the fees could be raised under this bill, that increase will have lasted 15 years.
“It will probably be November before the commission even considers what this bill authorized it to do,” said Allen Gebhardt, assistant director of the TWRA.
TWRA issues 60 different hunting and fishing licenses, Gebhardt said. The most common license, which allows residents to fish for most species and hunt small game, now costs $20. The state issues more than half a million such licenses per year.
Licenses to hunt large game, such as deer, bear, boar and turkey, are an additional $20. Trout fishing also costs an additional $20. The Sportsman’s License, which covers all of that, is $100 a year.
Gebhardt said the size of fee increase most frequently discussed is about 30 percent, presumably to be followed every couple of years or so by increases that are limited in the bill to the inflation in the consumer price index.
TWRA has been asking for the authority to control its own fees for several years, arguing that as a self-funding agency it should have leeway to raise the money it needs to do its job. The long stretch between fee increases has pressured many aspects of the agency’s operation, Gebhardt said.
“We cut virtually everything that didn’t impact our programs,” he said. “We didn’t buy equipment or land. We’re basically cutting down to the bare bones.”
Gebhardt said the change would allow the commission to adjust the rates in smaller increments every few years, instead of going 15 years and having one large increase.
Rep. John Tidwell, D-New Johnsonville, urged the House to keep the Legislature in control of TWRA fees.
“The TWRA deserves a fee increase and I would vote for it,” he said. “On behalf of the hunters and fishermen in this state I would like to point out to you that what we’re doing is not raising fees now, but raising them in the future by giving the power to a group of people who the hunters and fishermen cannot vote for.”
The TWRA Commission consists of 13 members. The governor appoints nine directly, and two others indirectly — the commissioners of agriculture, and environment and conservation, also are members. The speakers of the House and Senate each appoint one member.
Tidwell said the change would upset the Legislature’s ability to check fee increases.
Bill sponsor Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, said the Legislature would still have some say in the fee increases, and added that if things get out of hand could always change the law back to the way it is now.
A 30 percent increase in hunting and fishing licenses would yield about $8 million, he said. TWRA now brings in about $25 million a year through all its licenses and permits. It has a total budget of about $45 million.
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On the Net:
See SB422 at Tennessee General Assembly: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
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