Anglers are almost assuredly going to have to pay more to fish in the future. But when, and how much? Those are the questions.
Bob Frye / Everybody Adventures
This looks like a case where delay will prove costly.
Last year, state Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County introduced legislation that would have increased the cost of Pennsylvania fishing licenses for the first time since 2005. An annual resident license would have gone from $21 to $26.25 in year one, with annual increases coming each year thereafter until 2022, when they would have cost $30.43.
Combination trout and Lake Erie stamps would have increased in price, too, from $14 to $22.23 in the end.
The bill did not get through the legislature.
Now, a year later, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is even more desperate for money, its executive director, John Arway, told lawmakers at a recent hearing. What’s more, he said, the cost of solving its problems has gone up.
State Rep. Bill Kortz of Allegheny County has introduced legislation, House Bill 609, that would raise license prices starting in 2018. It was referred to the House of Representatives game and fisheries committee for consideration on Friday.
Bill Kortz
The bill calls for hiking cost of a resident fishing license from $21 initially to $27.30 in 2018, with annual increases following until they top out $31.65 in 2023. The cost of a trout and Lake Erie combo would go from its current $14 to $20.40 in 2018 and ultimately $22.69 by 2023.
Brewster is introducing companion legislation in the Senate, too. His Senate Bill 460 mirrors Kortz’s in terms of license prices.
If those fee hikes aren’t adopted this year, and the commission is making this same case again in 2018, they’ll go up again, Arway warned.
“It will continue to change the longer we delay action,” Arway said.
There could be other consequences, too. Arway said that if the agency gets no infusion of revenue, it will have no choice but to cut costs.
“We can’t go bankrupt like some companies do. We have to stay solvent,” Arway said.
The agency’s two biggest expenses are fish hatcheries and law enforcement, so that’s where cuts would likely come, he added. They’ll start next summer, too.
Two lawmakers, meanwhile, have introduced bills that would let the commission set fees on its own. Those are Sen. John Eichelberger of Blair County and Rep. Jeff Wheeland of Lycoming, both Republicans.
Sen. Patrick Stefano, a Somerset County Republican, has introduced a similar bill that would allow the Game Commission to likewise set its own license prices. No lawmaker has, like Kortz, brought forth a bill suggesting hunting license fees. The commission doesn’t want them to either.
Executive director Matt Hough told lawmakers that only confused the issue last time, with some lawmakers unsure of what they were being asked to support.
Arway said being able to set fees independently would be preferable, at least in Fish and Boat’s case. He promised the agency would use that power judiciously.
More than anything, though, he asked lawmakers to provide some revenue “certainty,” one way or the other. Either increase fees, he said, or say they don’t intend to.
Then, he added, the commission can formulate a plan for going forward.
“It won’t be like you see us today if we don’t get it. But we will survive,” Arway said.
