HB 2671 In Committee Tomorrow 2/9/2024
Kansas
There is a scheduled hearing in House Committee TOMORROW 2/9/2024. Rep. Corbet is trying to push this bill through ASAP with HB2672 to follow very soon. Time to get serious in making those phone calls, send those e-mails and or letters to your state rep. and the Ag Committee Members (see below).....TODAY!!!! KDWP needs our help as this is NOT GOOD for our KS resource! We are the front line.....time to go to WAR!!!! If anyone is available to go to Topeka it wouldn't hurt to see opposition to this present in the flesh as these hearings are open to the public for comment.
HB2671 - Lowering nonresident hunting license fees to $25 and requiring the fee for an annual hunting license to be refundable for any person who does not acquire a hunting permit for the applicable hunting license year.
HB 2671 Ag Committe Members Contact Info. below:
Chair - Ken Corbet Phone: 785 296-7679 Email: [email protected]
Vice Chair - Joe Seiwert Phone: 785 296-7647 Email: [email protected]
Sydney Carlin Phone: 785 296-7657 Email: [email protected]
John Alcala Phone: 785 296-7371 Email: [email protected]
Lewis "Bill" Bloom Phone: 785 296-7654 Email: [email protected]
Pam Curtis Phone: 785-296-7430 Email: [email protected]
Randy Garber Phone: 785 296-7665 Email: [email protected]
Trevor Jacobs Phone: 785 296-7616 Email: [email protected]
Lisa Moser Phone: 785 296-7637 Email: [email protected]
Corbet's a real GENIUS? This bill if passed would do two obvious things:
1. De-fund KDWP by approx. 1/3 of their budget.
2. It will be cheaper for Non-residents to hunt in KS than Residents....AMAZING?
Pretty direct and blatant attempt to spank the department for the baiting uproar last year. Doesn’t benefit a single resident, whether a hunter, landowner or outfitter whatsoever. The obvious purpose of this bill is to eff with KDWP.
Just sent emails, thanks for the heads up.
James…appreciate you taking the time to do that. Hope you receive some good feedback from them that you might be able to eventually share. Thx again!!!
We sent a long email last night. I wrote something out and had Erica correct the grammar. She sent it to everyone except Corbett…didn’t figure it would do any good with him.
Thanks for keeping on top of this and let me know what happens today.
I sent emails to all of them listed (including Corbett) and one to our governor yesterday mid-day. Still no replies from a single one of them.
No replies yet either. And I skipped Corbet too Calhoun. Didn’t think his staff would even look at it after my last email….
I didn't address Corbet, or Bloom either, but I let the others know what's driving this mindless agenda.
No response.
The responses I got last week from Corbet and Carlin were from personal email addresses. I attached both if they had them listed on their legislator profile. There’s a link below all the current bills that opens a spreadsheet with those as well.
I'm a non-resident that has been applying and hunting in Kansas for the past 20 years. The KDWP has started making the NR buy a hunting license before you are able to apply for a tag each year. If you are unsuccessful in drawing a tag you are still stuck with a hunting license that you are now unable to use. Makes no sense to me for this not to be refunded if I didn't successfully get drawn. They already charge you an application and process fee for applying so I think they should refund the money I spend on a license if I'm not awarded a tag.
Or AK, CA, CO, ID, NM, NV, OR, UT, or WA? :)
Easy alternative if you’re scared to donate a license fee to KDWP. Buy a point and apply the following year.
Maybe we can get the state to refund our money when we don’t get winning lottery tickets too? Don’t want to gamble Hoss, leave the game floor ( pun intended)
A person very high up at KDWP e-mailed me back today. This is what they said:
“Thanks Jason. Our final numbers, and this is not a stretch, came out over $38million per year. The hearing on HB 2671 has been moved several times and is now set for Monday at 1:30. Corbet will be trying to directly cut our budget during our budget hearing next Wednesday afternoon. He’s mad because we won’t give out an additional 10,000 NR deer permits.”
UPDATE: The hearing on HB 2671 has been moved to Monday 2/12/2024 @ 1:30pm in Room 118-N. Still time to send letters, e-mail or call. Committee member contact info is in first post above.
$38 million is wild.
Districts 54 and 64 need to drain the swamp this fall. Maybe KBA can use some of that commissioner’s tag money to fund some campaigns for better legislative candidates. I’m sure KDWP would approve! :)
Caleb…I have seriously thought about the same thing and making a motion at this year’s membership meeting along the same lines. However, the money spent to attempt to oust Corbett and/or others would need to come out of a different pot.
No way can we or should we use that Commissioner’s tag money in an attempt to help oust a political enemy. All that money has to be spent on Conservation projects as it should be. I like the way you think though!!!!
Maybe KDWP should appropriate some of their millions to do the same? In my opinion that would be money well spent!!!
Yeah, I just mentioned the commissioner’s tag because it’s the hot topic and KDWP might look the other way in this instance, haha! Sort of joking in that regard, but raising awareness/spending money in those districts and others about some of the bad apples recently certainly seems imperative these days. Might be dangerous for KDWP to do directly as it could lead to even more scrutiny from the state government, and it sounds like they may be a little vulnerable at the moment with some turnover in upper level management.
I love the KBA of course and have appreciated some of what the BHA chapter in Kansas is up to lately. Having said that it may be time for an all encompassing “Resident Hunters of Kansas” type group that can throw the full weight of the general hunting public against these idiots. Alaska has just that and they make a lot of noise against anti-resident/commercial interests. Even if the Corbets, Blooms and Roths are pushed out these issues likely aren’t going to cease. Especially if they get the rules changed and have the ability to stack the commission in their favor. But getting those guys out of the equation as soon as possible is certainly a good start.
2/12 @ 1:02PM. See below: As far as I know the hearing is still on schedule. Appears you can listen in by clicking on see speaker icon per the link attached.
UPDATE: The hearing on HB 2671 has been moved to Monday 2/12/2024 @ 1:30pm in Room 118-N. Still time to send letters, e-mail or call. Committee member contact info is in first post above.
1:15PM….didn’t think I would reach anybody at the last minute here but thought it was worth a shot. Luckily I got hold of one of them. Soon as I told my name this person remembered my email and told me they have it saved so that made me feel good that they’re at least paying attention.
Told again of my concern and this particular person definitely agrees with me and hopes it doesn’t pass. Said all they’re doing today is hearing about it and possibly doing the vote on it tomorrow if I heard that right.
Even though there was no words spoken whether this person thought it was going to pass or not I seemed to feel some worry in the voice. Like a nervous vibe…hope I’m wrong.
There used to be an all encompassing group called the Kansas Wildlife Federation but it exists no more.
I've sicced a ranking member of the Senate onto the Committee antics, may have thrown a bone to the media as well concerning the conflict of interest, will see what happens with that.
Good job Randy, see ya next week.
Interesting Dave. Didn’t know that.
Good stuff Randy.
I didn’t even think about the Wichita media getting ahold of information on a couple reps trying to gut an agency that benefits the state budget. Great job!
Someone notified certain media sources when the threats were originally made. Those same media outlets should be notified now that it appears the threats are being carried out.
Had the same thoughts after Randy’s comments, Jason. Not sure if the two authors of this article are who Randy reached out to, but I sent them a message earlier anyway.
No they are not, but they should be KB
I just sent them an email too KB
Dylan responded that they’ve begun on a 2671 article.
I sent it to Celia a few days ago, and Outdoorlife too...send it to as many hunting related "publications " as you can! Include all four Bills, as they're all retaliatory and sponsored by Corbet.
Per follow-up e-mail from KDWP last night, they had this to say about yesterday's hearing on HB 2671: "Corbet scrambled this morning to drastically change the bill when he read KDWP's fiscal impact analysis. He said he’ll work it Wed at 1:30 when they hear the KDWP budget."
Hmm, wonder what that means. Nice work crested…
The legislature being involved in making wildlife decisions comes down to Two things. One being getting money and deer involved, the second comes from a past governor in volved in wildlife decisions. We all have a hard hill to climb to get back to reallity.
Got this link from a fellow BS'r, I encourage everyone to use it.
Got a message from someone close to the situation today. Apparently Corbet snuck in an amendment at the KDWP budget hearing that would open rifle season the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if that’s a tweak to 2079 or something totally different. Just passing along.
Also said that Corbet changed 2671 to read that it would only return license fees to unsuccessful applicants, and pricing is to remain the same. Still a significant hit to the department according to the notes on the bill page.
Being that I live in the same community as Bill Bloom, I wrote him an email regarding HB 2671 and also touched on the self interests of Corbet. Received a response about an hour later. Figured I would just copy/paste it here.....
Joey, this was one of these things that people were very passionate about on both sides, even some fish and game employees wrote and supported some of it. We argued yesterday not to back up the rut season a week before Thanksgiving and finally had to compromise on one day after Thanksgiving because some committee members want to hunt before Thanksgiving when their families are home, and I thought it was all ridiculous because some Thanksgivings are early and some are late, and it depends on the conditions of each year when they come in heat. Anyway back to your bill, I asked the leadership before voting and they didn’t think this bill would ever be voted on by the who house because of the controversy. Then it would have to be passed by senate and signed by Kelly, and I cannot see it ever passing. Thanks for a decent letter, some have been pretty bad, but that seems to go with this job. Write or come see me any time
Just FYI… HB 2079 (not HB 2671) was the one that proposes extending rifle season to the day before Thxgiving (Wednesday) and thus increasing rifle season to approx. 3 weeks in lieu of the typ. 2 week season. In the letter shared per the post above, appears that a small compromise was made and rifle season would instead start the day after Thanksgiving. The day before or the day after doesn’t make much of a difference as it still SUX to think that rifle season could possibly move up into what had been an “archery only” season. Also, proposing to give away multiple statewide “free” deer permits to residents.
There is a separate post on HB 2079…if you want to see the specifics.
Here we go, hope the other outlets run with it!
The same guy that made this threat complimented you for writing a "nice" email? That's cool. I just re-read the email I sent. Didn't think it was impolite at all, but I never got a response.
