Moravec,

Here are a few snippets I put together for the folks on the forum that actually admit to killing fish once in a while:

"Most license fees go into the wildlife account. (Bushbear can correct me, but I think saltwater, shellfish and clam licenses go into general fund).

You can find out quite a bit about the budget here: http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/budget/

I thought these 2 were particularly helpful:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01145/wdfw_01145.pdf
http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/legislative/fact_sheets/2010_facing_future.pdf

I checked a spreadsheet I have from the department. For license year 2009 (April 09 - Mar 10?), it shows total fishing license revenue of $20.7M, total big game of $10.2M, total small game of $3.0M, and grand total license revenue of $34.9M. From the links I posted previously, total WDFW budget for the 2009-11 biennium was $327M, or about $164M per year. So the difference there ($164M minus $35M = $129M) is about what comes from federal taxes on fishing and hunting gear, contracts with PUD's, feds, etc., and general fund."


Bottom line, less than 25% of the agencies operating costs are covered by recreational license revenue.

Hope that helps.