Conservation Community Prepares To Defend Mdc Funding

[Phil Lilley]

Brandon Butler - Before the 2015 Missouri Legislative Session could even begin, bills were pre-filed to repeal the conservation sales tax and to eliminate fees for fishing, hunting and trapping permits. If this incredulous proposed legislation were to become law, conservation as we know it in Missouri would cease to exist.

Representative Craig Redmon (4th District) introduced House Joint Resolution 8. It calls for a complete repeal of Missouri’s conservation sales tax through a ballot measure. This means, “That at the next general election to be held in the state of Missouri, on Tuesday next following the first Monday in November, 2016, or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose, the next time there is a general election held in the state of Missouri,” voters will decide whether to sustain or repeal the conservation sales tax.

First of all, it is vitally important to understand what the conservation sales tax is. In Missouri, our general state sales and use tax is 4.225 percent, which is distributed into four funds to finance portions of state government. Those are: general revenue (3.0 percent), education (1.0 percent), conservation (0.125 percent), and parks, soils and water (0.1 percent).

So when you spend $8 on taxable goods, one penny of the sales tax collected goes to conservation (8.0 x .00125 = .01). Over the course of MDC’s fiscal year 2014, those pennies added up to $107,076,440. The sales tax revenue makes up 59 percent of MDC’s funding. It provides woodlands filled with wildlife, waters teeming with fish, public shooting ranges, hiking trails, rural fire protection, native species restoration, education centers, seedlings, The Conservationist and Xplor magazines, and so much more. Without the conservation sales tax, we would lose all of this. And for what? It’s not like the money can just be redistributed. The tax would just go away. Individuals would only save a few dollars a year, but would lose the conservation programs they cherish.

Most of the rest of MDC’s funding comes from permit sales and federal reimbursements. Those funding sources are also under threat of elimination.
Senator Brian Munzlinger (18th District) introduced Senate Bill 56. It reads, “The department of conservation and its permit issuing agents shall not charge a permit fee for the acquisition of a hunting, fishing, or trapping permit for a Missouri resident.”

Eliminating fees for hunting, fishing and trapping permits would strip another $40,000,000 from the Department’s funding. MDC would not only lose the permit fees, but also associated federal reimbursements.

The Department of Conservation’s budget represents less than one percent of the entire state budget, and the Department receives no state general revenue. If HJR 8 and SB 56 were to pass, the Department would be left with basically nothing to fund the programs, places and pastimes you and your family cherish.

Here are just a few examples of losses Missouri citizens will endure if these bills pass:
• Closure of Department shooting ranges
• Closure of Department Nature Centers
• Elimination of partnerships with rural fire departments
• Closure of fish hatcheries
• Elimination of public and private fish stockings
• Closure of Department maintained boat accesses
• Significant reduction in habitat work on conservation areas
• Significant reduction in resource enforcement by conservation agents
• Most fish and wildlife research projects and monitoring will end
• Significant reduction in efforts to control invasive species
• Limited support for the Share the Harvest Program

Why attack our Department of Conservation? The Department is the catalyst of recreation for millions of Missourians. And hunting, fishing, trapping, outdoor recreation and forest management supports 100,000 Missouri jobs and has an economic impact of over $12 billion dollars. Conservation works in Missouri. It is one of our most powerful economic engines in the state.

Missourians cannot stand idly by and let these catastrophic losses occur. These blatant attacks on our Department of Conservation must end. It is going to take a significant amount of citizen involvement to defend one of the greatest state conservation agencies operating in America today.

See you down the trail…

Brandon Butler is the Executive Director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri.

[fishinwrench]

40 Million in permit sales ???!!!

And why would they have to close all boat ramps and shooting ranges? That stuff has already been paid for.

It all sounds very Chicken Little to me. Nobody is gonna eliminate hunting/fishing permit fees. Gimme a break.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Your boat is paid for but you have to maintain it.

[fishinwrench]

How much maintenance does a slab of reinforced concrete require?

Nobody has had to do anything to the one here in Gravi for over 20 years.

When a piece of driftwood lands on it the first fisherman that gets there

throws it off to the side.

I appreciate what we have and what they do and all...but c'mon.

I often wonder if they are not fast becoming one of those 30.00 ink pen/700.00 mower-blade type agency's.

[Al Agnew]

Wrench, I hate to say it but that may be the stupidest thing I've ever read from you. Most river accesses have toilets that have to be maintained. Parking lots that have to be maintained. Several I use get covered with a lot of mud in floods that has to be cleaned off, and sometimes whole trees end up in the parking lot. Most have areas that have to be mowed. Pretty much the same is true of any department area, whether it be a campground or a shooting range.

I can't believe you're aghast at $40 million in permit sales. Permits are pretty cheap in MO. And $40 mil doesn't go all that far. For instance, I think there are something like 150 agents in the state. I don't know how much they make, but let's say $30,000. That would be $4.5 mil right there, and that wouldn't include their vehicles and other equipment and the maintenance of same. I would bet that the salaries of MDC employees alone would take up the vast majority of that $40 million, before you even got to funding the programs, maintenance of land and infrastructure, biological studies...

[fishinwrench]

What, that they are freaking out over nothing ?

Do you really think all this doom, gloom, and elimination of licensing fees is gonna happen?

That everything MDC is going to be off limits to those who paid for it and put up for auction to the shrewdest of condo builders?

Or is it stupid of me to say that I sometimes feel like they piss away insane amounts of money on things that don't make any sense to me ?

If ypu have never read anything stupider then you have missed a bunch of my dribble.

[Al Agnew]

Hey, you can only go on what the bills introduced say. If the bill says they want to eliminate permit fees, then that's what they want to do. Will that bill pass? Doesn't seem likely, but I would never underestimate the outright hatred of MDC and conservation in general of a significant segment of the MO legislature.

[fishinwrench]

Nobody is going to pass any bill that implodes "everything Conservation".

You think the riots in Ferguson were a big deal..... Ha !

[Gavin]

Some dumb stuff like this comes up every session in the MO legislature and never gets any traction. MDC sales tax is MDC's main funding source. 80% of what they receive ballpark. Permit sales might be 10-15%. Federal funds make up most of the rest. From memory, but I look at their published financials whenever I see them. Heck, I'm a CPA. I love to read & review financial statements and tax returns. Better when I prepare them and get paid. Think they spend around 140M a year, mostly payroll.

[Gavin]

FWIW, Al and All. Legislators from both parties HATE the conservation sales tax. I've heard the conversations, done some campaign treasury work over the years. It is over $100M that they can't tap. They want it.