Georgia Considers Raising Hunting And Fishing License Fees
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is asking people who hunt and fish how they’d feel about the price of licenses going up.
A fishing license in Georgia is $9 a year. Hunting licenses start at $10. That hasn’t changed since the 1990s, said Jenifer Wisniewski, marketing and communications manager for the state’s Wildlife Resources Division.
“In the last, oh, 23 years, prices have gone up on things that we use, like fish food and gasoline and other things,” she said, but the number of hunters and anglers hasn’t changed much. So the state’s income from licenses has been flat.
“We’ve had to decrease the amount of services that we offer, just because of inflation,” Wisniewski said.
According to Wisniewski, licenses pay for more than a fifth of the Wildlife Resources Division’s budget for game management. More than half comes from federal matching funds. For the division’s non-game program, the hummingbird and eagle license plates raise money for more than 60 percent of the budget.
In June, the state is holding public meetings to ask hunters and anglers if they’re up for fee increases. There’s also an online survey.
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