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Hunting, Fishing
License Increase
The Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries voted at its December meeting to seek an increase in state hunting and fishing license fees when the General Assembly meets in January, according to F.xecutive Directs Chester F. Phelps. The need for the increase during the 1966-68 biennium was attributed partly to rising operating costs, including a general increase in state salary scales which has left game wardens and other Commission field personnel far behind other state employees in recent pay adjustments. “Our revenue has not been keeping pace with our rising operating and maintenance costs,” Phelps said, “and in order to attract and retain the employees we need we should give our field force a pay increase next year comparable to that which similar classes of state employees already have received.” Phelps also cited the need to expand Game Commission programs and services to meet the growing demand for public outdoor recreation facilities and open space. “The Virginia Outdoors Plan, which was so well received recently at the Governor’s Conference orrNatural Beauty, calls for the acquisition and development of publichunting and fishing facilities during the next ten years at an accelerated rate. We can get federal aid in carrying out our part of the Virginia Outdoors Plan, but we will have to provide matching funds in order to do so and our only sources of such funds are license fees,” he said. The Game Commission received no appropriationsfrom the state General Fund. The Virginia Outdoors Plan was developed by the Outdoor Recreation Study Commission established by the 1964 Gemeral Assembly and headed by Senator Fitzgerald Bemiss. The Plan was included in a report to the Governor and members of the General Assemblylast November. The Game Commission’s proposal to increase hunting and fishing license revenues would raise individual license fees from $3.50 to $5.00 and wou\d establish a combination state hunting and fishing license that would cost $9.00. Thus the sportsman who now buys both a hunting and a fishing license annually would pay $2.00 more per year beginning next Jt^jy 1st if he chose to buy the combination license.
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