Hello Fellow New Yorkers.
As some of you know I sit on the state Conservation Fund Advisory Board (CFAB) where we, volunteers all, keep a close watch on where and why our license dollars are spent.
In 2009, along with the general fee increases for all of us, a recreational marine fishing license (for salt waters and tidal waters) was enacted for the first time. It was pegged at only $10. Prior to that the state General Fund had funded the Marine District but with General Fund appropriations dropping every year another funding source was needed.
Ever since then a number of attempts have been made by Downstate Senators and Assemblymen to repeal the license. They claim that the license is somehow unfair to the people who actually utilize the resource and that the rest of us should continue to fund the marine district.
There are currently bills in both houses to repeal the marine license and to have the DEC substitute a free marine fishing registry for comply with federal regulations that require one. The Senate bill is S3683 and the Assembly bill is A6169.
The bills all have in common gross distortions of or omissions of the real financial impact. Here are the facts:
The total sales figure for the 2010 license year for the recreational marine license was approximately $2.4 million. Those sales in turn leveraged approximately $1.365 million of federal matching funds.
The repeal of the license would require the DEC to institute a "free" registry of marine district anglers in order to comply with federal regulations. The only mechanism the DEC has to do that is the current DECALS program used for the sale of freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping licenses. The DECALS program is 100% funded through license sales. The current cost charged is $2.14 per transaction so the “free” registry would cost the other sportsmen of New York approximately $417,000 annually. Specifically, it would come from those of use who buy a license.
There are currently 40 DEC personnel who work full time to support the Marine District and who are paid from the marine account (a sub-account of the Conservation Fund) and for whom neither the Senate nor the Assembly have provided replacement funding. The annual cost is approximately $3.8 million.
Clearly, the total cost of repealing the marine license is approximately $8 million a year. Please note that there is no replacement funding being appropriated by either the Senate or the Assembly for the Marine District. That leaves only the “traditional” Conservation Fund as a possible funding source. That sub-account of the Conservation Fund is funded by the sale of freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping licenses.
In short, the sponsors of these bills and those who vote for these bills are making a clear statement that they want the rest of the sportsmen and the general public to pay for the marine district users to get a free ride. That’s right; they want your hunting, freshwater fishing and trapping license dollars or your tax dollars to go downstate to pay for supporting the marine fishery for people that can’t be bothered to pay for what they use.
Last Monday I had a Long Island salt water fisherman tell me the marine license's whopping $10 fee was "an insult" to him because he already had so many expenses for his boat, gear and boat dockage fees to pay for. When I asked him how that was different from the other 1.4 million folks who also pay for licenses in New York he couldn't come up with an answer still insisted the license was an insult.
Unless you want your taxes or the license money you paid for your freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping licenses to be used to pay for the marine district (for users who don't want to pay for it) you should contact your state representatives right away to tell them that you strongly oppose any repeal of the marine license.
Additionally, the Senate's downstate leadership stuck a provision to repeal the marine license on page 16 of the 51 page 2011 budget resolution that was voted on last week. To add insult to the financial injury, the last sentence of the "repealer" reads "Importantly, the Senate remains committed to ensuring that the Conservation Find programs will continue at the current level of service."
Only in the dysfunctional world of Albany politics can a group of politicians seek to take $8 million a year from our fish and game activities (money we paid for freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping), send it Downstate and claim to be committed to "the current level of service." for the rest of us.
Speak up now or we will inevitably lose more of our fish and game services.
Thanks for reading this.
Lance Robson
PS Within a few days a memorandum of opposition to the repeal will be posted on the correspondence page for the CFAB on the DEC website. It was sent to the chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation committee Friday, 18 March, 2011 and will take a few days before the DEC webmaster can post it. The page can be found at:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/68851.html
