There is a huge amount of taxpayer money being spent on wild fish. It is just not all in WDFW budget. Look at department of Ecology, Outdoor Recreation, and others. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

The punch card is a data recording tool so they can try to manage the resources properly. Lets try to avoid making its purpose into an allocation tool. The use of seasonal limits is better applied on a species by species and location by location basis and really should only be a consideration when bag limits fail to address a specific problem.

Cowlitz-
Tax, Fee, whatever, it is more money paid by those who choose to harvest a higher rate than the average.

If you follow this link
http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/com/minutes/sep1401.htm
you will see the meeting minutes from a 2001 commission meeting where the commission has to approve the supplemental budget. There are several other meetings minutes where the commission approves land aquisitions. There are opportunities to scrutinize the department budget, but not from the internet.