BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 345 (Berryhill) - The Sport Fishing Stimulus Act of 2015.
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|Version: May 5, 2015 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 18, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 345 would require that sport fishing licenses be
valid for 12-months instead of a calendar year, lower the annual
license cost for residents, and create a reduced-fee junior
fishing license.
Fiscal
Impact:
One-time costs of approximately $150,000 from the Fish and
Game Preservation Fund (special fund), likely in FY 2016-17,
for programming costs of the Automated Licensing Data System.
These costs may be offset by increased license fees.
Annual revenue losses, potentially in the range of $8 to $9
million, to the Fish and Game Preservation Fund from 2018 to
2023 as a result in fewer license purchases.
Annual revenue losses, potentially in the range of $2.7 to
$4.5 million, to the Fish and Game Preservation Fund from
reduced federal Sport Fish Restoration Act funds in 2018
through 2023
SB 345 (Berryhill) Page 1 of
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Annual revenue reductions of approximately $2.5 million to the
Fish and Game Preservation Fund from 2018 to 2023 as a result
of reduced license fees.
Annual revenue reductions of approximately $660,000 to the
Fish and Game Preservation Fund as a result of lower fishing
license fees for 16- and 17- year olds.
Background: Sport fishing licenses are generally required to take fish,
mollusks, crustaceans, invertebrates, amphibians or reptiles in
the state. Additional validations and report cards are required
for certain species and areas. Existing law specifies that
licenses are only valid for the calendar year for which they are
bought.
DFW is issues fishing licenses through an automated system
called the Automated License Data System (ALDS) that allows for
licenses to be purchased at any time online or over the
telephone in addition to in-person purchases.
Proposed Law:
This bill would make several changes to the sport fishing
licenses that would valid between 2018 and 2023. Specifically,
during that period, this bill would:
Make sports fishing licenses valid for 12 consecutive
months beginning on the date specified on the license.
Set the base fee for a residential 12-month permit at
$42.50 for the 2018 license year, which may be adjusted for
inflation in subsequent years.
Raise the age requirement for a sports fishing license
from age 16 to 18.
Allow a resident or nonresident that is between 16 and
18 at the time of purchase, to purchase a 12-month license
at the same costs as a single day license ($10 base fee to
adjusted for inflation since 2004).
SB 345 (Berryhill) Page 2 of
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This bill would also exempt charitable organizations and donor
intermediaries from the fish possession limit under a sport
fishing licenses and directs the Fish and Game Commission to
develop regulations or recommendations to the Legislature to
clarify how processed fish should be treated for the purposes of
the possession limit.
Related
Legislation: SB 583 (Berryhill, 2013) and AB 1786 (Mansoor,
2012, June 18 version) would have made fishing licenses valid
for 12-months instead of the calendar year. SB 583 was held in
submission by the Senate Appropriations Committee and AB 1786
was amended to address another issue.
Staff
Comments: This bill would require DFW to make significant programming
changes to ALDS in order to offer a second type of sport fishing
license at an estimated cost of $150,000. These costs might be
reduced since the 2018 effective date of the license provisions
of this bill would align with an update of ALDS. This bill would
require that a fee be added to the 12-month license to recover
the administrative costs of issuing the 12-month license. DFW
estimates that around 580,000 of the approximately 1 million
licenses sold annually would choose to purchase a 12-month
license. If this estimate is correct, the administrative fee
would be about 25 cents per license for one year.
Change from the calendar to 12-month license:
Staff notes that while this bill would allow for the sale of
12-month fishing licenses, any validations, such as enhancement
stamps, will remain based on calendar year as required by
statute. Thus, should this bill become law, the valid dates for
the base sport fishing license will likely not align with the
valid dates for the associated validations. The lack of
alignment between the license and enhancement stamps is likely
to cause consumer confusion. In 2012, slightly more than half of
the fishing licenses sold, or about 580,000 licenses, were
bought without any additional enhancement stamps.
This bill may also have an impact on sport fishing licenses fee
SB 345 (Berryhill) Page 3 of
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revenues by reducing the number of licenses sold. DFW has
surveyed other states that have shifted to a 12-month license.
Georgia, Virginia, and Alabama all saw a decline in revenue and
sales by 9 to 31% subsequent to changing their licensing terms.
Texas also saw a reduction in annual license sales, but as
license fees were increased, there were no lost revenues.
Alabama reverted to a calendar year license after using 12-month
licenses for over a decade. Switching back to a calendar year
license coincided with a subsequent increase in license sales.
Based on other state's experience, DFW estimates a 20% reduction
in sports fishing licenses. Given that sport fishing license
revenues have ranged in the low- to mid-40 million dollar range
in the past three years, such a reduction would result in $8 to
$9 million in lost revenues.
DFW notes that the state receives federal grant funds as part of
the Sport Fish Restoration Program. The amount the state
receives is based on land area and the number of licensed
anglers. Should this bill decrease the number of licenses sold,
it would correspondingly decrease the amount of federal grant
funds received by the state. Currently California receives the
maximum state apportionment of the funding of 5% or
approximately $18 million. DFW estimates that a 20% reduction in
fishing licenses sold could result in a loss of $2.7 million to
$4.5 million in federal Sport Fish Restoration Act funding.
Creation of the Junior Sports Fishing license:
Based off information from ALDS, DFW estimates that
approximately 22,000 16- and 17- year olds purchase residential
licenses and 100 non-residential licenses. Given the 2015 fees
are $43.50 and $117, respectively, but would be lowered to $14,
the current cost for a day-use license, under this bill, DFW
estimates that there will be a loss of approximately $660,000 in
revenues annually. Staff notes that the intent of the author is
to stimulate license purchases of youth who have the potential
to become life-long participants in the sport. To the extent
that this bill spurs additional interest in sports fishing, the
increased sales could offset the revenue losses from the reduced
fee. However, whether there will be a change in license sales is
uncertain. Staff also notes that the number of fishing licenses
sold each year has been on a steady decline. Impacts of changes
made by this bill would be additive to any other trends in sport
fishing participation.
SB 345 (Berryhill) Page 4 of
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Lowering of fee for the Residential calendar year license:
The sections of the bill that are effective until 2018 and after
2023 (Sect 5 and 7) use 2004 as the reference base year for all
license fees as these fees may be adjusted for inflation. But
for the section that is valid between 2018 and 2023 (Sec 6), the
bill switches the reference year to 2018 for the resident adult
annual license and sets the base amount to $42.50. However, the
base license fee in 2015 is $43.50 and by 2018, staff estimates
that the base fee would be $45 based on inflation rates for the
past five years. Thus, this bill is reducing the base fee from
$45 to $42.50. Given that there are approximately 1 million
calendar-year residential licenses sold each year, this change
will result in a reduction of $2.5 million in annual license
revenue. Staff notes that this change might not have been
intentional by the author.
Other provisions relating to the possession limit:
DFW estimates the other changes proposed by this bill in regards
to the possession limit and requirements of the Fish and Game
Commission would be minor and absorbable.
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