LISCENSE INCREASE
Colorado
Residents will pay the price for the loss of revenue because of the non resident tag allocation reduction. Your fees are gonna increase drastically as soon as the surplus money is gone. On the positive, less pressure and a more quality hunt for those that can afford it.
Possible. I never under estimate government's ability to raise taxes and fees. But, I doubt it will be high enough to reduce resident pressure noticeably
Drastically? Yeah right. If anyone is going to pay the price for the non resident quota reduction, I have no doubt it will be the non residents.
I love when these nonresidents come on here and complain. Your opinion doesn't matter, hopefully Colorado will join the other western states and cut non resident allocations even more.
Orion, not sure if I'm the complainer you speak of, but my post was not a complaint. Just pointing out the likely way it will go down. Nor do I think the residents should see a drastic increase. At least allows us NR up to 25% of the posts on the CO forum.
no i was talking about the relichunter and his doomsday post towards all of us residents
First cpw absolutely doesn't NEED to make up the loss revenue seeing how they have a huge budget surplus annually and after these cuts will still have a huge annual surplus. Will they maybe? But even if they pass that on to residents and not NR I know of several CO hunters who would glady pay more for tags if it meant less NR hunters in the woods. This was a solid and overdue move by cpw even though they tried to flip flop on the %. Probably caused by NR and outfitter whining fortunately resident outdoorsmen and women stepped up and loudly cried BS. I'm a NR with points for elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, and sheep and while I feel the sting of the new quotas as much as anyone I don't let it blind me to seeing it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately I would guess getting the new quota while having wolves shoved down your throat probably takes some of the shine off of it.
After the great reset there won't be many with money for hunting or vacations for that matter..
Understood Orion. I agree with you...your license cost is none of my business. Thats why when the day started with a VA guy telling CO guys to get ready for a drastic increase, I had to call out such obvious misinformation.
I heard the change will move about 3000 tags according to CPW numbers to residents. I think that was for elk, but possible all species. Let assume that just elk. 3000 x 700 the difference between a resident and non resident tag. That 2.1 million loss in revenue. Not a huge piece of the budget but not peanuts either. However no doubt some of the NRs will end up hunting OTC as long as it is still around reduce that dollar amount. That about what the state spends to 'house' 3 homeless people a year. ;)
As a nonresident I understand and fully support Coloradans right to set the rules for the state of Colorado. If the rules provide an enjoyable recreation opportunity for me then great. If not I will live with it.
I doubt the change in and of itself will impact resident fees. It definitely will decrease revenue. But, as others have said: there is a current surplus (that needs to be rectified because it indicates bad governance); it may increase NR OTC sales a bit to offset some of the loss; and they may ultimately increase NR fees (though that apparently will require action by the legislature).
The change will absolutely have a favorable impact on reducing point creep for residents. It will make available 15% more NR permits in every low draw unit. It might even reverse point creep for residents after a few years for some lower demand units. It might even reduce crowding a very small amount in OTC units if most of the residents gaining draw permits were getting OTC permits in the past.
It also will absolutely increase point creep significantly for NRs. Bad for me, but I get it that the state of Colorado needs to take care of it's residents.
It's not a loss of 3000 licenses for NR's , if they still wanna hunt, they'll just move to OTC areas. No net loss of income, or very little for those not wishing to hunt OTC's.
Be sure to add in the new draw units that increase qualifying licenses, and also add in the increase of cow tag fees.
Also a good number of hunt codes have enough licenses to meet the demand of anyone who puts in first choice. 75/25 only applies if enough residents put in first choice to hit the 75%.
Sounds like my opinion is wrong and you guys have all the answers. Whats a virginia guy Know about hunting in Colorado? My first hunt in Colorado was 1989. That probably longer than most. Done my share of outfitting in the western states including Colorado (23 yrs). I was not whining or crying just an opinion and my experience as when resident and non residents get into this situation of who gets tags, DOW agencies will take advantage of it. Land owner tags are a bigger threat to resident tags than non resident tags are. Those tags are free tags that are sold to non residents for big money. They could be your extra tags. Why would you overlook that. New Mexico is a prime example. Where does it stop. We as hunters should have a common goal and stick together not blast each other for difference of opinion. Time will tell but my bet is that your tags will increase as soon as the non resident surplus is gone. Non resident fees are roughly 10 times a resident fee. The CPW is pulling a fast one one you guys. The cpw just changed the game some. 10% of tags go to private land, west of I-25. Some previously OTC units that are now draw units will still be OTC units on private land. (Elk page 35 of rule book) Not only can a non resident still get a tag, he will be hunting that private land that residents may have had access to. So go ahead with those extra tags and push those elk down on private for the NR hunters. This Non resident will benefit from private land tags and OTC tags on private. Its a win win for me.
"those tags are free tags and sold to nonresidents for big money".. While that may be true to some extent, current data shows that one half of land owner licenses are used by land owners and family members. Will that change in the near future, hard to tell.
Most residents, I understand are willing to take a reasonable increase in big game license fees. I am sure their might be a increase in license fees, but that must be approved by the Colorado Legislature.
non resident fees will rise again before resident prices do. Colorado is still cheap compared to the states surrounding us.
"After the great reset there won't be many with money for hunting or vacations for that matter" Yes, but finally we will be happy!
"Land owner tags are a bigger threat to resident tags than non resident tags are." For a guy that guided here for 23 years you ought to know landowner tags are removed off the top before the public draw happens so the negative impact is to ALL public draw hunters, regardless of residency.
Landowner preference tags are set in state law. Changing that requires legislation. The current make up of the democrat legislature might be open to change, they seem to dislike rural colorado and agriculture. That said, there would be opposition.
I'm in the landowner program, none of mine get sold. I will say lots of land eligible for land owner vouchers (160 minimum) is sold these days to owners users, and they use the vouchers themselves. Some units are so subdivided landowners can't draw tags - look at 69/84 - horrible draw odds for landowners, lots of 160 acre tracts. Other units are really large ranches - those tags are likely to go to outfitters anyway. Other units that are largely public land, have very few 160 acre tracts - those the landowners don't sell the tags.
Like I said before, to raise the license price beyond point fees - you need legislation. CPW is getting legislative help now for wolf predation costs, and they have 52 million in surplus funds. If you are legislator giving out money - do you fix road complaints, deal with education complaints, handle 100's of thousands of complaints about county tax valuations(mine tripled) or give money to CPW with 52 million excess? I'm pretty confident CPW is the last thing on their mind.
