License, Park Fee Increase Proposed By Minn. DNR

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Fishing and hunting licenses and visiting state parks would cost a few more dollars under the Department of Natural Resources' budget proposal, but the agency said Wednesday that the increases are necessary to prevent cuts to outdoors programs that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans enjoy and help fuel the state's economy.

As part of Gov. Mark Dayton's budget proposal, the DNR proposes raising the annual resident fishing license fee from $22 to $25 and the resident deer hunting license from $30 to $34. An annual state park permit would rise from $25 to $30 per car, while a day pass would rise from $5 to $6. Fees for boats, snowmobiles and ATVs are also targeted for increases.

The last time Minnesota raised these user fees was in 2013. The proposed increases are needed to keep the state's Game and Fish Fund and other dedicated accounts that provide 83 percent of the agency's budget from going into the red in the next few years, DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said at a news conference.

Landwehr equated the fishing license increase to the cost of a "scoop of minnows" and the deer license change to the cost of four bullets. He said the package will hold the agency for another six years.

The commissioner said the DNR hopes lawmakers approve the increases this session because the earliest they could take effect would be March 1, 2018, when a new license year begins. Any later and staff and program cuts would become necessary. He said the increases won't pass unless sporting groups and individuals contact their legislators and tell them that they support higher fees, he said.

"One of the challenges with fees is that it always a tough ask at the Capitol because nobody wants to raise fees, nobody wants to raise taxes, and yet that is the source of income for these programs," Landwehr said.

Most of the proposed increases are in the 12 percent to 14 percent range, but Landwehr pointed out that most work out to just a few dollars. Among other fees, the DNR wants to raise nonresident individual angling licenses from $45 to $51, nonresident deer licenses from $165 to $185, daily cross-country ski trail passes from $5 to $7, three-year pleasure boat registrations from $27 to $45 for a 17- to-19-foot watercraft, three-year snowmobile registrations from $75 to $105 and three-year ATV registrations from $45 to $60.

John Lenczewski, executive director of Minnesota Trout Unlimited and head of a citizens' committee that oversees the Game and Fish Fund, said licenses are a bargain. And he said there are no shortcuts for maintaining the healthy populations of fish and game that have made angling and hunting a huge economic driver for the state.

"We don't see any other way that we can maintain the high quality of life we have here," he said. "Angling and hunting, trapping, they're part of our heritage here. It's really a birthright woven into our culture."

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