Testimony at the NYS Assembly’s EnCon Budget Hearings

By Harold L. Palmer, President

    On January 10, 2007 I testified at the NYS Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Budget Hearings.  My testimony centered around the Budget for the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and its impact upon significant operational and capital programs that relate to fish and wildlife management.  Here are some of topics I discussed.

     The Conservation Fund is primarily funded by the sale of resident and non-resident hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses, along with a partial reimbursement from a tax paid on items like guns, bows and ammo as a result of the Pittman-Robinson act.  A large portion of these funds are used to pay for the cost of personnel in the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources.  The Conservation Fund will have a $7 million to $10 million shortfall of funds by March 31, 2007 .  This shortfall cannot be made up by increasing fees on the backs of our aging sportsmen. We need to recruit more young sportsmen and women, and one way to do this is to allow our junior hunters the opportunity to hunt big game.

     Sportsmen and women spend billions of dollars in New York on items related to hunting, fishing and trapping.  Each year New York State receives hundreds of millions of tax dollars that go into the General Fund from the sales of items used by hunters, anglers, and trappers.  During 2006, New York took in $10,633,673,013 from all sales taxes. It is time that some of our sportsmen’s tax dollars be returned to the sportsmen, by way of the Conservation Fund.  We recommend that New York State put one quarter of the taxes it collects from the sales of sportsmen’s items into the Conservation Fund. These funds should come from every item used for hunting, fishing, and trapping. We believe that if more money is not returned to the sportsmen and women by existing sales tax monies being put into the Conservation Fund, then funding should be taken from the General Fund to cover items such as the fringe benefits for personnel who are paid through the Conservation Fund. These benefits totaled $17,205,384 in the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

     Over the past decade, money from the General Fund that paid the salaries and benefits of hundreds of staff in the Department of Environmental Conservation was cut.  Early retirements were offered, and those jobs were not filled. The duties of those retired employees were then assigned to staff who are paid out of the Conservation Fund, in effect cutting programs in the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources for sportsmen.  More staff should be added to the Department of Environmental Conservation so as to allow the Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources staff to properly manage our resources. 

     Additionally, the numbers of Environmental Conservation Officers have remained the same for several years, even though their duties continue to expand. We need their numbers doubled to have better protection of all of our resources. Maintenance and repairs to our fish hatcheries need to be improved before we lose some of them due to neglect. The fish stocked from these hatcheries contribute to a large part of the rural upstate economy.

     We also recommend that a mandatory surcharge be implemented, to be paid by all who are convicted of fish and wildlife law violations, whereby half of the surcharge would go to the local court and the other half would be placed in the Conservation Fund. Penalties should also have a set minimum dollar amount and a minimum sentence time.

     We recommend that the Motor Fuel Tax paid by boaters on fuel they use be placed into the Conservation Fund.

     The $5,000,000 appropriated for the fish hatcheries has been used for engineering and design of the necessary repairs at the 12 State fish hatcheries, and some actual repair work.  It is our understanding that most of the designs and plans will be completed on or about the end of this fiscal year.  Some projects have been designed and constructed, or equipment purchased, using re-appropriation from several prior year budgets. Similar programs have begun with regards to fishing access sites. Previously the estimate was for $25 million in repairs and equipment needed to maintain our fish hatcheries.   However, we assume that the 1999 estimates may be seriously understated due to inflation in material and labor costs.  By the end of this project, the total may exceed $100 million.

     Fishing access sites and boat launches also are key capital projects.  Each major new boat launch site can exceed $1 million.  So, the fiscal year (FY) 2003 and FY 2004 re-appropriations of $500,000 are barely enough to finish the projects that have already begun.  We are severely disappointed that not enough new money was appropriated for fishing access sites and boat launches in FY 2006-2007, given that a requested project list exceeds 20 projects in different communities around the State. 

     The Committee also should be concerned that extensive re-appropriation exists for marine district projects, including large federal funds in excess of $15 million for property acquisition and construction projects. State funds of about $124,000 are still unspent for boat launches and fishing piers on Long Island .

     We strongly believe that the Conservation Fund can be made solvent with re-allocation of existing revenue.  We do not see a need for new taxes or increases in license fees.

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