The Fish & Game budget request for next year shows a 20 percent increase, but that's due to a one-time project: $13 million to build the new Springfield fish hatchery with Bonneville Power Administration funding, for sockeye recovery. "Excluding the hatchery, our budget request is $79.3 million, or an increase of less than 3 percent from this current year," Fish & Game Director Virgil Moore told JFAC this morning.

Asked by lawmakers whether the department needs to look at a license fee increase, Moore said, "We probably should come back next session for a request, but we can likely survive one more year. At that point we're going to be right up against the wall ... unless the economy improves and non-residents start coming back in previous numbers."