INunyet - There has been a lot of discussion about who will fund removal of nets and pots in the future. Please recall that nets still do not have to be identified as to owner nor do they have to be reported if lost. But that is another story.

i`m going to wait until i hear the outcome of NOF before i buy mine, if they screw things up to bad i wont buy one.

Sure you'll buy one.........

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.

GREAT POST!! Very informative. The 1st link (http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01145/wdfw_01145.pdf) lists all of the activities WDFW does, and then breaks down their cost and # of FTE's. Except at the end of page 3 it has a caveat that says:

Funding also supports: Commercial and recreational licensing; asset management; regional operations; information
technology; fiscal and budget management, public information, human resources, safety, revolving accounts; Fish and
Wildlife Commission activities; policy and executive management. Or what you could call ADMINISTRATION, and it doesn't seem to break this component of the Agency down.

The second link you post (http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/legislative/fact_sheets/2010_facing_future.pdf) has the 2009-2011 biennuim budget listed as $327.1 million dollars and 1,386 FTE's. So if you take the infomation from your 1st link and calculate:

The TOTAL you only get 1,206.6 FTEs for $252.7 million dollars of funding which averages out to around $209,431 spent per FTE (Full time equivalent employee for those of you that don't know). Where's the rest? Well if you take $327.1 minus the $252.7 you get $74.4 million left over for what I assume is the FUNDING ALSO SUPPORTS little caveat portion (23% of the TOTAL BUDGET!!!). Doing the same mah for FTEs (1,386 minus 1,206) you get 179.4 FTEs which calculates out to over $400,000 per FTE for F*#$ing ADMINISTRATIVE costs for WDFW. You've got to be kidding me!!!!!! I've seen JohnQ on other posts complain about the # of IT folks they had, but not until I reviewed the actual #'s the AGENCY ITSELF PUT OUT THERE can I say. . . that is one HELL of a BUREACRACY! Hell of a good reason to raise my licencse fee right?!

Goes back to the classic 2 old government rules: 1) Bureacracies must grow or die; 2) Bureacracies never die.

John, I only get pissed off at jackasses that attack WDFW individuals by name, when SOME of us have to work with those people. You are clueless when it comes to working with others trying to accomplish a goal.

It's my "choice"??? What the hell are you smoking? Should all the advisors quit to make you happy? We don't hire or promote managers. We work with who is chosen for the job.

Should recreational crabbers NOT be represented on an advisory committee or do you think only people hand picked by you should serve?

Like I said. You're a jackass.

Do you believe it has done the Program any good shielding that level of incompetence?

Then get yourself to a commission meeting and do it yourself.

Oh wait... you just spout off on the internet.