I can't speak to any Donzi that Fish & Game may own but I can say this: I have, with the exception of time away at college, lived my entire life in NH and every year since I was 16 I've purchased a fishing license. The price of a hunting or fishing license has almost doubled in that time and it is well over the rate charged in any other state I've visited. As much as the price of a license aggravates me Ihave to object to Fishycover's comments on spending. I was fortunate enough to work summers within the Fisheries Program at NH Fish & Game while I was in college. Of all state agencies they are the one most run like a business. They do not get general funds. They are force to fund themselves through licenses and fees. They work with minimal staff and are mindful of their budget. The one thing they were willing to put extra money towards was vehicles. The reason being that with few staff it meant that people had to cover large districts, often in poor conditions, and reliable transportation is a must.
One of the problems with running Fish & Game like a business is that they are responsible for search & rescue operations. These operations chew up huge amounts of time and money. How do you run Search and Rescue like a business? It can't be done. While I appreciate the need for these operations and I have sympathy for the families of whomever they may be searching for I would rather have the funds paying for the search coming from some other source than my license fees.
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