You know, I didn’t realize I was being “taxed” when I bought those hunting and fishing licenses at Nichols Store in Rock Hill last year. I thought I was supporting fish and wildlife through the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and its programs – and paying for the opportunity to bring some fish and wildlife home to eat.Now, some members of the state legislature have informed me that, duh, little did I know, I was actually being taxed. From what I can gather, these are people who ascribe to Gov. Mark Sanford’s less-is-more-except-in-Argentina worldview, in which any dollar a private citizen turns loose that winds up used by the state government to provide services for its residents is a dollar too much.
That’s a simple summary of what happened in late May in Columbia. Members of the state house decided that fee increases for hunting and fishing licenses and boat registrations — approved by the state senate to relieve some of the budgetary pressure on the SCDNR — amounted to excessive and new “taxes.” They took an estimated $2.7 million in revenue from the fee increases out of the budget and replaced it with $1.7 million from the general fund. A conference committee settled on the house version for 2010-2011. Anyway you want to add it up, that’s $1 million less for the SCDNR, further hamstringing its ability to manage redfish, turkeys, shrimp and quail, as well as hunt down poachers.
My immediate reaction was like that of most good ol’ Southern boys when faced with something that seems ridiculous — “Do what?!”
This year, I am celebrating 40 years of having bought hunting and fishing licenses in eight different states: Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Texas and Louisiana. I don’t think I ever begrudged any of those wildlife departments even one of the dollars that I handed to a clerk over the counter or charged on-line to be able to kill doves in Georgia, deer in North Carolina, turkeys in South Carolina, pintails in Texas or to catch Cajun redfish.
I’ve considered them dollars well-spent, and I believe they fall into the category of “user fees.” If I want to use something, I pay for it. If I don’t want to, I don’t. If I want to go see the Myrtle Beach Pelicans play baseball when I’m in town, I hand somebody a few dead presidents and enter the stadium. If I’d rather stay home and watch guys play poker on ESPN2, I keep my money. That’s a user fee. If, on the other hand, some of the money I send to the government winds up in the Pelicans’ checkbook whether I go to a game or not, that’s a tax.
The economy is sagging across the Southeast. State governments like South Carolina’s have been hit hard by unemployment and the resulting loss of the tax base and sales tax. The SCDNR’s budget has been hacked to shreds over the past several years. When SCDNR number crunchers get down to figuring out where to make cuts, they’re not cutting fat, they’re shaving off bone. Sooner or later, that bone is going to break.
The S.C. Camo Coalition mounted a campaign of support for the fee increases that went a long way toward getting them into the senate version of the budget bill, so it’s not much of a stretch to say that the voices of sportsmen were heard by members of the state senate, if not the house. Maybe next time, if we speak a little louder and more clearly, they’ll let us spend a few dollars more to fund some of the programs we love instead of including us in their tea party.
Be the first to comment