Thank you, Governor Paterson, for accomplishing a feat New York hasn’t
seen happen in several decades – that being, polarizing the sportsmen
and women of the state into a singular powerful political force.
Perhaps the real credit might go to the NYS Deputy Secretary for the
Environment, Ms. Judith Enck, who reputedly was one of the primary
advisors who prodded the governor into making what may have been one of
the biggest political decision blunders since the NYSDEC was born from
the NYS Conservation Department back in 1971. From a poor decision
standpoint, it nearly rivals the governor’s predecessor’s ill-fated
“escort adventure.”
Paterson’s executive decision to close down the last remaining public
pheasant rearing facility near Ithaca, kill and donate the processed
brooder birds to food banks, then sell the facility (reportedly to
Cornell University) ignited a firestorm that had been building up for
years, since all this was being done without so much as an invited word
from the state’s sportsmen whose dollars funded the facility and
program, and whose dollars would also pay for the processing and
shipping of the birds to food banks. It’s notable too that since 2000,
through the Venison Donation Coalition, Inc. program, New York hunters
have voluntarily coordinated the collection and distribution of nearly
500,000 pounds of ground venison to food banks in the state.
For those who don’t follow the DEC’s income and budget makeup, all
revenue generated by sporting licenses and fees is required by law to
be placed in a special dedicated fund, in New York’s case it’s the
Conservation Fund. Also joining these revenues are the state’s share of
special state and federal excise taxes, over and above sales taxes,
that are paid by sportsmen on hunting and fishing gear. Now the NYS
Conservation Fund Advisory Board (CFAB) – the state’s watch dog group
for the fund – wants a full and complete accounting of how these
revenues have been used. By law, they’re only supposed to be utilized
for fish, wildlife and related habitat and conservation programs. The
majority of non-conservation environmental and other programs fall
under the big umbrella of the State’s General Fund.
For many years since the NYSDEC came into being, sportsmen were
especially worried that the Conservation Fund revenue was not being
used properly and that “creative” budget practices were being used to
funnel funds into other projects and programs that had little or no
connection to the purposes required by law. From a cost standpoint, if
one removes fish rearing and stocking from the DEC’s fish and wildlife
programs, there are no other ones that require annual, ongoing
replenishing support, other than the pheasant project. Other game
species such as deer, bear, wild turkey, waterfowl and other small game
species are self-proliferating and are managed by limits and seasons.
Since hunting and fishing generates billions of dollars annually in New
York State, exactly where was the revenue they created going? Obviously
it was easy for Albany to quote the total income from sporting licenses
and fees, but what about all the revenue from related taxes hunting and
fishing generated? According to DEC, nearly 700,000 New Yorkers and
over 50,000 nonresidents hunt here annually, and over a million go
fishing each year. From an economic standpoint, hunting generates $1B a
year, while statewide fishing creates $1.3B annually, Oswego County
alone enjoys $3.5M in directly generated fishing revenue annually.
Combined, hunting and fishing in New York brought in $250M in state and
local taxes. Yet, the Conservation Fund is currently running about $24M
in the red. How could that be? What exactly are the state’s sportsmen
and women getting for the billions of dollars they spend on their
activities each year?
Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of governmental slush funds
within a general fund — which is what some dedicated funds may become
-- since they may entice officials to be “creative” in misusing them
for pet purposes that the funds were never intended to support. When
the title “environmental” is used in conjunction with revenue
expenditures there’s precious few projects that would fall outside that
catch-all blanket. Fish, wildlife, habitat and related conservation
could all obviously be construed to fall into that big net, given the
right wording and budget manipulation, which many of us suspect is what
has happened and been happening with dedicated Conservation Fund
revenue. Up until the pheasant program debacle, it appeared the
majority of licensed sportsmen literally adopted the “sheeple attitude”
and allowed DEC within a general fund use of the money they spent
annually on their outdoor activities.
The initial pheasant program decision by the governor literally
screamed "Danger Ahead" for all NY sportsmen, conservationists and
outdoor enthusiasts, and signaled that fish, wildlife, conservation and
habitat were being stomped even deeper into the DEC priority basement
by the massive weight of the state's huge environmental priority-heavy
boot. Had the pheasant program decision not been reversed, you can bet
your children and grandkids' futures that it would have had a steady
negative ripple effect throughout all the other fish, wildlife and
habitat programs and priorities.
Although this is an initial victory for New York's millions of
sportsmen/women and wildlife enthusiasts, it appears there will be more
challenges ahead for all of us, including gun and bow hunters, bass,
walleye and trout/salmon anglers and all sportsmen in general as
apparently Judith Enck, Deputy Secretary for the Environment, seems
dedicated to drastically cutting fish, wildlife and habitat programs
within the DEC and funneling more of that money into environmental
programs and projects. Questions still remain about how and where
revenue in the Conservation Fund has been spent.
Let’s hope this recent banding together of all sportsmen and women of
the state, in addition to the various clubs, associations and lobbying
groups that represent them, will be an ongoing phenomenon … one that
demands accountability from the DEC and State and will settle for
nothing less. We’ve turned the other check and looked the other way far
too long.