BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2013-2014 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: SB 583 HEARING DATE: April 23, 2013
AUTHOR: Berryhill URGENCY: No
VERSION: April 2, 2013 CONSULTANT: Katharine Moore
DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Sport fishing: licenses.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
The Department of Fish and Wildlife's (department's) mission is
"to manage California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant
resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their
ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the
public."
Existing law allows California residents and nonresidents 16
years of age or older to purchase an annual "calendar year"
sport fishing license valid from January 1 through December 31.
California residents and non-residents can also purchase a
one-day or two-consecutive-day sport fishing licenses, and
non-residents can purchase a 10-consecutive-day license set at
the same fee as a resident annual license.
It is against the law to fish without a valid fishing license
with limited exception (Fish and Game Code (FGC) §7145). Fish,
amphibians, reptiles, mollusks and crustaceans may be taken only
in the amounts specified with authorized gear, and only during
the open season, which may be limited. Depending upon the fish,
there may be a report card or validation required. Even anglers
who are not required to have a sport fishing license, such as
anglers under 16 years of age and anglers fishing on free
fishing days, are required to have the appropriate report card,
if necessary.
The department is in the process of implementing the Automated
License Data System (ALDS) which is intended to streamline the
license process by making licenses continuously available for
sale on-line. ALDS is intended to replace the existing
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paper-based licensing system. Primary implementation of the
ALDS is complete but the system's final features (e.g. Phase 2)
will not be fully implemented until early 2014. ALDS's existing
capabilities are already determined and are based upon the
current licensing structure. All sport fishing licenses are now
issued via ALDS.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would add a new type of annual sport fishing license -
a 12-consecutive-month-from-date-of-purchase "annual" license -
to the existing calendar year annual license for both residents
and non-residents and the ALDS and paper-based systems.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, "Spending by sportsmen and women in
California generated $488 million in state and local taxes in
2011 [?] California outdoorsmen deserve more options when
purchasing fishing licenses. Often people don't consider buying
a fishing license until late spring, summer or even fall. Most
anglers would be more than happy to pay a slightly higher price
for that license to be good for 12 full months."
"SB 583 would add an additional license option for California
anglers. It would create a fishing license which would be good
for 12 consecutive months, regardless of when it is purchased.
The cost of this new license would be set to a level to help
cover implementation costs and insure there would be no revenue
drop-off. [?] By giving California anglers more options and
flexibility we can generate more involvement and participation,
and therefore additional revenue for the state."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received
COMMENTS
Demand for annual calendar year sport fishing licenses is strong
into the summer . As discussed in detail below, demand for the
current calendar year annual resident license remains strong for
approximately the first 60% of the year. Based upon the
pricing, the annual resident license is equivalent to
approximately 3 one-day passes, or 2 two-day passes. (It is
also the same as one ten-day non-resident license.) If an
angler does not purchase an annual sport-fishing license until
December, it still may make financial sense - if more than 2 - 3
days will be fished - to purchase the annual license.
Too many mandates and insufficient funding . In April 2012, the
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department published the California Fish and Wildlife Strategic
Vision (vision) developed through extensive stakeholder input.
One area of concern identified was the long-standing recognition
of the department's inadequate resources. According to a
companion document, the department "is being asked to do $1
billion in programs while receiving only $400 million in
funding." As a result, the vision made the specific
recommendation that "in the future, when the legislature enacts
legislation, it identifies a specific means by which the new
mandate can be paid for." Last year, the Legislature passed two
reform bills that sought, in part, to implement some of the
vision's recommendations. One of these bills, SB 1148 (Pavley,
c. 565, Statutes of 2012), gave specific authority to the
department to raise fees in order to meet the costs of
administering and implementing various programs, including sport
fishing licenses. Given this legislative policy and to provide
clarity, the Committee may wish to amend the bill to require
that the price of the new class of annual license include a base
fee (common to both annual licenses) and fees specific to its
administration and implementation (Amendment 1). (The author
initially proposed a flat additional fee of $5 for
administration and implementation costs for the new program
which there are no data to support. Further, committee staff
were unable to obtain data on the relationship between sport
fishing fees and department sport fishing costs.)
The annual license is not the only item valid for a calendar
year. This bill does not alter the additional validations and
report cards necessary to fish for particular species. At least
some of these validations and report cards are currently
implemented on a calendar year basis. Additionally, bag limits
for some species, e.g. abalone, are reported annually, and
numerous other programs, such as the recognition of other
state's licenses in some instances (e.g. FGC §7184.1) will
require either statutory or regulatory changes to conform to the
valid time period of the new annual sport fishing license
proposed by this bill. In the near term, this presents both
enforcement problems for the department and the potential for
confusion and error on the part of the angler. Further, ALDS
currently may print the validation or stamp on the same form as
the license. Therefore, in addition to the uncertain impact on
revenues (described below), the Committee may wish to establish
this new category of annual license - 12 consecutive months from
the date of purchase - as a pilot program with a 5 year sunset
date from the start of its implementation. This will provide an
opportunity for the demand for the new license category to be
assessed, for its impacts to be evaluated and addressed by the
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department and necessary follow-on changes, such as conforming
dates for validations and report cards, identified. According
to the department, modifications to ALDS are likely to take
approximately one year to implement. Modifying and changing the
scope of ALDS may be both time-consuming and expensive. The new
category of license and the pilot program will not start until
ALDS is ready. (Amendment 2)
What do other states do ? According to the department, some
states, including Alabama, Utah, Georgia and Virginia switched
from calendar year to 12-consecutive-month annual sport fishing
licenses. Of these, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia experienced a
decline in sport fishing license revenues at least in part
attributable to the change. Alabama switched back to a calendar
year-based annual sport fishing license. Utah has increased
revenues. It is not clear how relevant the experience of these
states are to California given differences between the programs.
2010 - 2012 sport fishing license data . Approximately 1,000,000
resident annual sport fishing licenses were sold, as were an
additional 531,000 - 543,000 one-day and 103,000 - 122,000
two-day sport fishing passes. These represent well over 90% of
the number of licenses sold per year, as well as over 90% of the
license fee revenue (about $55.3 million). Additionally,
another 599,000 - 777,000 validations and report cards
accompanying the licenses were also sold which yields an
additional $5.5 million on average per year.
2011 - 2012 Sport fishing license sales by month . The
department provided sport fishing license sales data from ALDS
broken down by month. For annual licenses, there is a sharp
peak in January (up to 160,000 resident licenses sold in that
one month), followed by a fall-off in February by about 35 -
45%. About 15% of anglers buy a new annual pass in January.
The monthly sales of the existing annual license increase back
up to a sustained level of about 130,000 for April through July
(4 months) before declining by half in August (about 65,000) and
continuing to fall off through the end of the year. By
contrast, one and two day fishing licenses show no January peak
but smoothly increase to a peak of 107,000 on average in July -
August (2 months) before falling by about one-third in September
(70,000) and flattening out to 19,000 - 31,000 in November and
December. While the summer months are the peak months for both
kinds of licenses, there appears to be a shift to later in the
year for purchases of 1 or 2 day licenses from the annual,
calendar-year based license. It is not clear if these
late-in-the-calendar-year purchasers would switch to purchasing
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an annual pass based upon 12 consecutive months and whether or
not this would impact other license purchases. According to
2006 data from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the average
number of California resident angler days is 12 per year. It is
not known how these days are distributed throughout the year.
Is the resident fee $31.25 or $42.50 or $45.93 for a resident
sport fishing license ? The $31.25 base fee set in statue is for
the 2004 license year and has been adjusted upward, per statute,
to $42.50 for the 2013 license year. There are a 5% license
agent handling fee and a 3% nonrefundable application fee which
increase the amount paid to $45.93. If an angler purchases a
license directly from the department, the agent fee is waived
and the total due is $43.78.
Related legislation .
AB 1786 (Mansoor, 2011) would have required that on or after
January 1, 2015, the "annual" license would switch from per
calendar year to 12 months from the date of purchase (amended to
a substantially different bill after passing Senate Natural
Resources and Water Committee unanimously (9 - 0)).
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS
AMENDMENT 1
Revise §7149 (a)(2) and §7149.05 (a)(2) to read:
"(2) A resident, 16 years of age or older, for the period
of 12 consecutive months beginning on the date specified on
the license, upon payment of a base fee of forty-seven
dollars and fifty cents ($47.50). forty-two dollars and
fifty cents ($42.50) plus an administrative and
implementation fee specific to recovering all costs to the
department of adding this license."
Revise §7149 (a)(4) and §7149.05 (a)(4) to read:
"(4) A nonresident, 16 years of age or older, for the
period of 12 consecutive months beginning on the date
specified on the license, upon payment of a base fee of one
hundred nineteen dollars and twenty-five cents ($119.25).
one hundred fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents
($114.25) plus an administrative and implementation fee
specific to recovering all costs to the department of
adding this license."
AMENDMENT 2
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Revise §7149 and §7149.05 to provide a 5-year sunset for
the 12 consecutive month from date of sale annual license.
The 5-year sunset period will start when the ALDS has been
updated to sell the new annual license type and the first
of the new license is sold. Paper licenses of the new
annual type will have the same 5-year sunset period as
those issued through ALDS. (Legislative Counsel to draft
specific language.)
SUPPORT
None Received
OPPOSITION
None Received
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