Jan. 06–JEROME — The Idaho Department of Fish and Game will ask Idaho lawmakers this session to increase license and tag fees for Idaho residents.
If approved the measure would be followed by a Fish and Game Commission order allowing license buyers to exempt themselves from the increase as long as they continually buy annual licenses starting this year.
The agency said its “price lock” proposal is unique to Idaho. The goal is to create an incentive for hunters, anglers and trappers to buy annual licenses whether they use them or not.
“We know that most Idahoans consider themselves to be hunters and anglers, but many don’t purchase a license and get out in the field every year,” Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore said in a release. “If just 10 percent of intermittent license buyers started purchasing every year, license revenue would increase $1 million annually and we could improve hunting and fishing opportunities in Idaho and keep prices low.”
It’s been a decade since the last resident fee hike in Idaho. Since then, Fish and Game’s operational costs have increased 22 percent. As a result, the agency is raising and stocking fewer fish and conducting fewer game population surveys, Fish and Game’s release said.
Fish and Game proposes raising the price of resident licenses, tags and permits by $1 to $6 starting in 2016. The price of a resident hunting license, for example, would rise from $11 to $14, and a fishing license would rise from $24 to $28.75. Read the rest of the proposal’s details online at Dfm.idaho.gov/Legislation/260-02_RS23273.pdf.
If the Legislature approves and the governor signs the measure into law, Idaho residents would be able to lock in at current prices for all licenses, tags and permits by purchasing an annual license in 2015 and each year thereafter, Fish and Game said.
How long would that last?
The “price lock” would remain in effect for at least three years, the agency said on its website. After that, the lock would be subject to review by the Fish and Game Commission.
“As long as you buy an annual license, you’ll continue to pay the current fees, not the increase fees we are proposing,” Moore said in the release. “This approach hasn’t been tried anywhere else, but we think it will work.”
More information about the Fish and Game proposal is posted on the agency’s website: Fishandgame.idaho.gov.