CONSERVATION CORNER
February 6, 2006
Wildlife Agency Should Be Adequately Funded
by James L. Cummins

Last year, many Mississippians witnessed the Mississippi House of Representatives pass a bill reversing their earlier passed bill to cut the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It would have reduced their general funding by $8,549,764 or 90 percent of their already low budget.

This year, they are facing a cut of approximately $6.5 million in special funds. Special funds are funds generated from park entrance fees, licenses fees, taxes on boat fuel and hunting and fishing equipment.

This prompts a question. What are these dollars that sportsmen pay being used for? You and I have already carried our load, it is time the Legislature pass a bill to allow the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to use all of these funds on fish, wildlife and parks their intended use. When I buy my sportsmen's license or pay a fee to enter a state park, I don't want one red cent of those funds going anywhere but the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. In fact, I would like to see legislation mandating that all fees generated from hunting and fishing license sales, park entrance fees and other fees generated by the agency stay with the agency.

Mississippi's sportsmen have a very significant impact on Mississippi's economy. Sportsmen in Mississippi annually pay $55.6 million in state sales, fuel and income taxes this could pay 1,881 teachers' salaries or fund the annual education expenses of 10,488 students. Sportsmen support more jobs in Mississippi (12,258 jobs) than Northrup-Grumman (10,000 jobs), our state's largest private employer. Mississippi's sportsmen annually spend more than the value of the state's cotton crop ($670 million versus $406 million). And the ripple effect of Mississippi's sportsmen is $1.2 billion on our state's economy.

On the national level, 38 million sportsmen age 16 and older spent more than $70 billion dollars in 2001 that would rank hunters and anglers #11 on the Fortune 500 if they formed a corporation.

Hunters and anglers mean jobs in the states that have made the effort to maintain their hunting and fishing opportunities. The economic impacts that sportsmen have on our economy should be a wake-up call to our elected officials to help fund programs that also generate much of their revenue source.

These special funds go towards not only providing good wildlife habitat, but providing places for people that can't afford their own place to fish or a place for outdoor recreation. A cut of the special funds will impact those that depend on public land for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. Much of their reason for hunting and fishing is simply to put food on the table.

In this budget crisis, some belt tightening is expected. However, taking park and license fees to pay for other uses is just bad fiscal policy.