NH house bill 663FN

[Misty Blue]

I have spent many a day in the NH woods and all I can say is that the NH Fish and Game department are awesome.

They are strict but courteous and truly want sportsmen to go afield.

I can't see what good this shake up will do and if it means that their funding gets changed around, I can see their services dropping.

Misty Blue

[Kamper]

I think the legislature has been working to combine Law Enforcement under one administration for the past 10-15 years. It makes sense in many ways but for folks like us, with special interests, it feels like we are no longer 'special.'

[upthesaukee]

Here is the text of a caption under a picture of Fish & Game officer Ron Arsenault, regarding a talk he gave to the Alton Centennial Rotary club meeting recently.

<sup>Fish and Game talk
"We are rapidly going broke" says Ronald B. Arsenault (left), NH Fish and Game Conservation Officer to members of the Alton Centennial Rotary Club at its weekly meeting. He added, "Mostly because Fish and Game is involved in so many state wide search and rescue missions, and at our department’s expense, it eats up too much of our limited revenues earned from the sale of licenses or from fees." NH Fish and Game Department is not state-funded, but self-supporting, and is in danger of being absorbed by the NH State Police because of insufficient income to continue as is. If this happens, it essentially would eliminate the indispensable animal protection and conservation services NH Fish and Game Department now provides resulting in a huge and negative impact on NH tourism, according to Arsenault. The good news reported by Arsenault is that New Hampshire is now seeing a rapid return of rabbits, bobcats and some lynx in NH. Rotary Club Program Chairman Bob Regan (right), introduced Officer Arsenault.


The picture and text can be found here, on page A5 on the bottom half of the page. http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/pdf/BAY.2015.02.05.pdf</sup>

[Tired of Waiting]

possibly be a way to dip into the F&G dedicated funds and spread it around to the other department?

Just a thought. Cause that is what they tried around here. The F&G funds are dedicated to just that and they wanted to spend the money on other departments so the easy way was to merge them and that moves the money to where the politicians want it.

Didn't go over very well and was scrapped.

ToW

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by Tired of Waiting

possibly be a way to dip into the F&G dedicated funds and spread it around to the other department?

Just a thought. Cause that is what they tried around here. The F&G funds are dedicated to just that and they wanted to spend the money on other departments so the easy way was to merge them and that moves the money to where the politicians want it.

Didn't go over very well and was scrapped.

ToW

He says that F&G is going broke because of S&R missions... not that the purchase of Downing's landing helped finances either.

[Sunbeam lodge]

Originally Posted by upthesaukee

He says that F&G is going broke because of S&R missions... not that the purchase of Downing's landing helped finances either.

Looks like another power grab in an attempt to give senators and reps a way to help friends who have problems with the services.
If f&G is self funded now and is combined, they then can forget about their budget like the rest of the Govt and just spend and the general taxpayers will pick up the tab.
A new commission with all the trappings and staff. What happens to all the people that are doing the job now? In business you usually make changes to make business more efficient and less costly. I don't see that as the end result here.
This just looks like more regulation and red tape for taxpayers to jump through
with no real defined plan as to what will change other than a increase in cost.