Nonresident Kin Could Get License Break Legislator Supports Bargain Fees, Wants To Promote Family Hunting

Resident sportsmen could hold down expected hikes in their license fees by enticing more out-of-state relatives to hunt in Idaho, a local legislator says.

So state Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, plans to introduce legislation that would establish bargain fees for nonresident family members of Idaho residents.

All nonresidents now pay $101.50 for an Idaho hunting license, plus $226.50 for a deer tag and $326.50 for an elk tag. Cameron would like to charge out-of-state relatives $60 to $80 to hunt in Idaho, but he has not worked out all the details.

“The real purpose is to promote families hunting together,” he said Friday. “We’re a family state. We enjoy hunting with our families, and this is the kind of mechanism that would allow that to continue.”

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has recommended a fee increase to generate $1.4 million this year, and Gov. Phil Batt supports the proposal.

The money would boost the financially strapped state Department of Fish and Game’s law enforcement efforts and improve research into the health of the state’s elk and deer herds.

Cameron and some other legislators, however, are critical of the department’s request for more money. Cameron said he thinks the agency could eliminate some middle-management staff, such as the chief of the natural resources policy bureau in Boise.

Fish and Game Director Steve Mealey said a department task force reviewed whether to eliminate the bureau and its chief but decided to keep both and streamline the bureau.

“There are very important functions performed by the bureau of natural resources,” Mealey said. Those functions chiefly involve responding to policies implemented by other agencies that affect Idaho wildlife.

The governor generally is supportive of a fee increase, but he will review Cameron’s idea and others, Batt spokesman Lindsay Nothern said.