Maryland Caucus Rejects Proposed Budget Cuts to DNR’s Fisheries Service

ANNAPOLIS, MD: The 2009 Maryland General Assembly has rejected the proposed $2.5 million in budget cuts to the Fisheries Service within the Department of Natural Resources. April Fool's...no, not really.

There is a legislative fiscal knife slicing through Maryland State Government, as lawmakers grapple with declining revenues and expanded public service demands. The structural deficit is no joke and every agency, department, commission and unit within State Government has felt the pain. One need only scour the budget documents released yesterday in the Maryland State Senate and last week in the Maryland House of Delegates - per the annual Budget Bill - to identify the list of casualties. One unit not listed on the fiscal casualty list is DNR's Fisheries Service...not a penny was taken from them by the 2009 Maryland General Assembly.

The recession of the early 1990s compelled lawmakers to force DNR to rely more upon special funds - license fees, entrance fees, etc. - than general funds, those derived from the taxes we all pay for State services. The rationale: user groups which depend upon any agency should pony up a greater share of monies to realize attendant benefits. For nearly two decades, this policy has witnessed DNR's ever-shrinking funding pool as less people hunt and fish. The victim: less funds for resource management.

Maryland's recreational fishing community could stand it no more. In 2007, they united and asked the 2007 General Assembly to increase recreational fishing license fees - not commercial licensing fees. Senator John Astle, Senate Co-Chair of the bi-partisan Maryland Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus, submitted the requested legislation and it was enacted...indeed, the only fee increase legislation approved at the 2007 Session. All they asked in return was a fair share of general fund support in the future. This historic partnership was honored this year when Maryland lawmakers rejected a $2.5 million cut to DNR's Fisheries Service by its staff agency, the Department of Legislative Service. A victory not only of this coveted partnership, but a victory for the resource...and this could never be the subject of an April Fool's joke.