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No one wants to pay more, myself included.

For anything.

Gas. Insurance. My hunting license.

But when it comes to the latter, I could live with the idea of ponying up a few extra bucks when I buy my next license.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has been making a renewed push for a hunting license fee increase – from $19 to $29 the first year, followed by a pair $5 incremental increases every other year.

It’s been 16 years since the legislature last granted the agency a fee increase. The PGC’s personnel costs – despite having a few less employees, have doubled from $40 million to $82 million over the last 16 years.

Expenditures are projected to outweigh revenue by $35.5 million in a few years.

It’s time to raise the cost of a hunting license.

But the effort to keep the PGC fiscally afloat shouldn’t end there.

Cuts should be made as well.

I’m not talking about laying off employees, cutting programs or scaling back on the 220,000 pheasants the agency produces each year.

Legislators can help the Game Commission cut costs by passing a bill introduced by state Rep. Gerald Mullery that would allow hunters to purchase their doe licenses online or from issuing agents, and not just county treasurers.

If the bill were to pass, perhaps the PGC could save money by not having to print the multi-pocketed envelopes that hunters now use to mail their doe license applications to treasurers.

The agency would even realize a source of new income in the deal as well. Right now, county treasurers receive $1 for each doe license application they process. If those applications were done online, that $1 fee would go directly to the agency. So far 693,177 antlerless licenses have been sold this year. If half were purchased online, that would equate to almost $350,000 in new income for the agency.

Sure, with a projected budget shortfall of $35.5 million in a few years $350,000 is only a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start.

Perhaps a little creativity will help the PGC’s finances as well. Borrow a few ideas implemented by the Fish and Boat Commission – sell collectible hunting license buttons for $10 each and explore the feasibility of offering multi-year general hunting licenses.

Maybe it’s time that the Game Commission not only ask legislators for a license fee increase, but that the agency receive an appropriation from the state’s general fund as well. Such an appropriation could lessen the fee hike passed on to hunters and trappers.

Mullery had a good idea when I spoke to him about the issue last month. He suggested placing more of the fee hike on non-resident licenses and lessen the burden a bit on residents.

That could work with some broad marketing efforts. Our bear population is at an all-time high with plenty of enormous bruins. Let the rest of the country know that Pennsylvania is a bear hunter’s dream and maybe more non-residents wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for the chance to harvest a trophy bruin.

Still, all the aforementioned ideas won’t completely fix the PGC’s budget. A license fee increase will.

But it could be a tough sell.

There will be plenty of hunters who feel the Game Commission doesn’t deserve an increase because they’re responsible for low deer numbers in certain areas of the state. A license fee increase may be the last straw that drives disgruntled deer hunters away from the sport.

We don’t need that, but this isn’t just about deer.

It’s about keeping a wildlife agency that manages 480 species of birds and mammals and owns 1.5 million acres that we can all use, afloat.

I can tolerate paying more for that.

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By Tom Venesky

[email protected]

Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky