BILL ANALYSIS
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2009-2010 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: SB 1058 HEARING DATE: March 23, 2010
AUTHOR: Harman URGENCY: No
VERSION: March 19, 2010 CONSULTANT: Marie Liu
DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Game hunting.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
Existing law in the Fish and Game Code and in regulations of the
California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) establish hunting
seasons, bag limits, and other statutory qualifications and
restrictions for the hunting of game in California. Additional
provisions are specific to various species. For example,
existing provisions explicitly provide for a licensed hunter to
supplement his or her license with "tags" that allow the lawful
take various species, including deer, elk, bear, wild pigs,
antelope, bighorn sheep, and upland game birds.
Existing law requires the Director of the department (DFG) and
the Secretary for Resources to annually report on the fund
condition of the department's various accounts that comprise the
Fish and Game Preservation Fund as part of the annual budget
process. This was a provision of SB 1535 (Kuehl) that
implemented a recommendation of the LAO which was concerned
about the accounting practices of DFG. In 2004, a state audit
noted accounting issues with various dedicated accounts within
the Fish and Game Preservation Fund hat have been addressed to a
certain extent both with remedial legislation and internally
within the department.
Existing law provides for the continuous appropriation of 54% of
the funds generated by the sale of deer tags for the
implementation of deer herd management funds.
More than $9 million is generated through the sale of hunting
licenses, and specialized tags generate another $2 million. Bear
tags generate $775,000. Elk tags generate about $100,000
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annually, antelope about $10,000, and bighorn sheep about
$5,000.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would create the Big Game Management Account and the
Upland Game Bird Account within the Fish and Game Preservation
Fund. Specifically, this bill would:
Deposit proceeds from the sale of antelope, elk, deer, wild
pig, bear, and bighorn sheep tags into the Big Game Management
Account.
Deposit proceeds from the sale of upland game bird hunting
validations and bird stamps into the Upland Game Bird Account.
Restrict uses of the Big Game Management Account, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to acquire land and conduct
programs and projects that benefit antelope, elk, deer, wild
pigs, bears, and bighorn sheep and expand public hunting
opportunities.
Restrict uses of the Upland Game Bird Account, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to acquire land and conduct
projects and programs to benefit upland game bird species and
expand public hunting opportunities.
Allow the department to make grants from the Big Game
Management Account and the Upland Game Bird Account to, and
enter into contracts with, nonprofits to carry out the
purposes of the account.
Establish an advisory committee for each the Big Game
Management Account and for the Upland Game Bird Account to
review and comment on all proposed spending from the account.
Require DFG to post budget information and information on
projects funded by the Big Game Management Account and the
Upland Game Bird Account on its website.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
In support of the bill, the California Outdoor Heritage
Alliance, points to past problems with the usage of revenues
from bear, elk, sheep, antelope, pig, and upland bird
tags/stamps. Specifically, they site a 2006 LAO report that
found that DFG shifted funds within the Fish and Game
Preservation Fund that resulted in revenues dedicated by statute
for specific uses being used for unauthorized purposes. The
California Outdoor Heritage Alliance also cites DFG data that
show that only 62% of deer tag revenue, 64% of wild pig tag
revenue, and 48% of wild sheep auction tag revenue was used for
related conservation work.
The California Outdoor Heritage Alliance states, "To more fully
address these problems over the long-term, SB 1058 would require
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that user fee revenues from bear, elk, wild sheep, antelope,
wild pig, deer and upland game bird tags/stamps be used for game
species conservation purposes. The bill would also require DFG
to consult with nonprofit conservation groups on proposed
conservation projects funded from the fees, while facilitating
the cost-effective assistance of the nonprofits with the
projects. SB 1058 also consolidates various existing big game
species fiscal accounts into a single account (a practice
recommended by the LAO in its 2009-10 Budget Analysis Series
(RES-60)), which further improves efficiencies in the use of the
monies and gives DFG greater flexibility to benefit all big game
species."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received
COMMENTS
Past efforts: This bill is substantially similar to SB 589
(2009, Harman), which this committee passed with a unanimous
vote. SB 589 was approved by the Legislature but was ultimately
vetoed by the Governor. In his veto message, the Governor
stated, "The create of more dedicated accounts and reserved more
funds for those accounts will only increase the complexity of
the Department's fiscal management of these dollars, as well as
reduce the Department's flexibility to appropriately administer
hunting programs. Additionally, the bill's requirement that the
Department post budget information on its public website is
redundant since the Department
already does this for all of its accounts."
The committee may wish to note that while some budget
information is available on the Department's website, this bill
would require more detailed information to be posted, most
notably a brief description of the projects funded by the Big
Game Management Account nd the Upland Game Bird Account.
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SUPPORT
California Bow Hunters/State Archery Association
California Chapters of Safari Club International
California Council of Land Trusts
California Houndsmen for Conservation
California Outdoor Heritage Alliance
Lodi Bowmen
Lower Sherman Island Duck Hunters Association
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
The California Sportsman's Lobby
The Outdoor Sportsmen's Coalition of California
U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance
3 individuals
OPPOSITION
None Received
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