Virginia Capital Chapter's 1998 Legislative Watch
FinalUpdate:
House Bill 38 was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor. Action on House Bill 40 was deferred.
VCCTU is linking this information to promote wider access to, and more citizen involvement in, fisheries-related legislation proposed in the 1998 General Assembly.
Virginia Capital Chapter supports two bills which have been introduced at the request of the Virginia Department of Game and Fisheries to provide increased funding.
VDGIF has never relied on general tax revenues since it was established in 1916, but is funded by user fees and the federal excise tax on hunting & fishing equipment. Hunting license revenues are decreasing and fishing license revenues are flat, while at the same time unfunded DGIF responsibilities, including non-game management and environmental assessments, are continuing to increase. DGIF now has the second-lowest funding level among Southeastern states, and the Virginia Game Protection Fund is projected to run dry by 2000.
House Bill 38 would assign a proportion of the existing state sales tax on hunting, fishing, and wildlife-watching equipment to the Game Protection Fund.
House Bill 40 would allow DGIF to make small incremental increases in basic license fees. Currently, increasing fees at all requires an Act of the Legislature. We have not had such an increase in 10 years.
More Information from VDGIF.
You can make a difference!
Contact your representatives, and let them know what you think about specific bills! The best way to do this is to write a personal letter to your Delegate and to your Senator. You may also call the State's Legislative Services Hotline from 7AM to 7PM daily while the legislature is in session. An operator will ask your name and address, write down your comments, and direct them to the appropriate legislators. The toll-free number is:
800-889-0229
HB 38 Tax on hunting, fishing and wildlife equipment (summary)
Dedication of tax on outdoor equipment. Dedicates, beginning July 1, 2000, two percent of the proceeds from the
state sales and use tax on hunting, fishing and wildlife-watching equipment to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries'
Game Protection Fund. The actual amount that will be deposited in the Fund will be based on the most recent equipment sales
figures reported in U.S. Bureau of the Census "National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation"
for Virginia. The bill specifies that a portion of the dedicated revenue has to be used to defray the cost of law enforcement. A
special, nonreverting fund, the Capital Improvement Fund, is also created to be used to purchase, construct, maintain, or
repair the capital assets of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The Board of Game and Inland Fisheries is
authorized to transfer up to 50 percent of the dedicated sales tax revenue from the Game Protection Fund to the Capital
Improvement Fund to finance the agency's capital needs.
Status
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Full Text
HB 40 - Hunting and fishing license fee adjustments (summary)
License fee adjustments. Authorizes the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries to increase the costs of basic hunting and
fishing licenses and the big game license to an amount not to exceed the rise in the Consumer Price Index over the previous
two years, using 1998 as the base year. However, the increase in each license fee cannot exceed one dollar for residents or
two dollars for nonresidents. Before instituting such an increase, the director of the department must notify the chairmen of
the two oversight committees of the proposed changes.
Status
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Full Text
The following links are provided by the Virginia Legislative Information System for the 1998 Session of the General Assembly:
"Our Assembly has been long in Session, employed chiefly (according to my information) in rectifying the mistakes of the last, and committing others for emendations at the next."
.......George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1788.
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This page is maintained by Bill Britton; send email or use the Guestbook. Last updated: 12/2/98.