Governor’s budget would boost resident deer hunting license fee by 91 percent

Faced with a deficit in the state Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Fish and Wildlife Account, Gov. Tony Evers has proposed in his 2025-27 budget to significantly boost the cost of hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses.

It’s been 20 years since the state raised resident license fees. The proposed price hikes would range from $10 to $40. 

That might sound small, but in some cases the percentage increases are steep. For example, the resident deer hunting license would jump from $22 to $42, a 91-percent increase. The resident annual fishing license would grow by 50 percent, from $20 to $30.

The resident conservation patron license would rise to $201 from $161; the resident small game license would climb from $16 to $36, a 125-percent increase. The resident trapping fee would double from $20 to $40.

The DNR says costs have skyrocketed, but lawmakers have questioned the management of the accounts, as well as agency efficiencies and transparency. Those concerns have led to an audit of the accounts by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), which is ongoing. In addition to rising costs, the DNR says its bottom line has been hampered by falling license sales, though the agency says the number of deer hunters slightly increased in 2024 compared to 2023.

Whatever the reason, prior to the budget proposals, the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Account has been projected to be in the red to the tune of almost $16 million by fiscal year 2026. In addition to license fees, federal money flows into the accounts, specifically the Pittman-Robertson wildlife program and the Dingell-Johnson fishing program ($38 million together in 2025).

At a DNR Natural Resources Board (NRB) meeting on Feb. 26, the DNR’s director of management and budget, Maggie Hutter, acknowledged that the fish and wildlife account has been a “hot topic.”

“This budget is increasing hunting, fishing, and trapping fees to provide stability to the Fish and Wildlife account,” Hutter told board members. “Most licenses are seeing either a $10, $20, or $40 increase, depending on the license type, and this is to plug that hole in the fish and wildlife account and allow the DNR to continue our operations in the next biennium.”

In addition to plugging the deficit, the agency budget proposes significant spending for fisheries and wildlife management programs as well. For example, the budget proposal includes $3.7 million for wolf monitoring and nonlethal abatement.

“This would be mainly predator-proof fencing for those in chronic wolf depredation areas,” Hutter said.

There’s also $388,600 for fisheries forage and freight costs and for additional creel surveys in the ceded territories; $2 million for grants to maintain tribally-owned fish hatcheries; $1 million to issue grants for deer carcass disposal sites; and up to $450,000 each year in additional GPR [tax dollars] for endangered species.

Reaction

With a 1,917-page budget bill to digest, a lot of lawmakers have yet to comment on many specifics, but that’s not true of impacted communities, and already some sportsmen and hunters’ groups have weighed in on the proposed license fee hikes.

On Facebook, Wisconsin Wolf Hunting posted that Evers was repeating old habits.

“Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers at it again,” the post stated. “Just a day after introducing language to change the term mother to ‘inseminated person,’ Evers proposes massive increases in hunting, fishing and trapping fees in Wisconsin. Evers is calling for nearly a 91 percent increase for a resident deer license and 125 percent increase for a small game license.”

Luke Hilgemann, the executive director of the International Order of T. Roosevelt, a hunting and conservation foundation formerly known as the Shikar Safari Club International Foundation, said the budget proposal was shocking.

“Governor Evers’ budget proposal to hike hunting and fishing license fees by up to 130 percent is outrageous,” Hilgemann said. “Before even considering such steep increases, the governor and his DNR need to allow the legislative audit of our Fish and Wildlife accounts to be completed. We deserve transparency on how our sportsmen’s dollars — especially the $30 million in Pittman-Robertson funds that came into the state just last year — are being spent.”

Hilgemann said hunters, anglers, and trappers are always willing to support programs but need assurances that hard-earned dollars are being used wisely. 

“This isn’t just about fees,” he said. “It’s about trust in our leadership and the stewardship of our wild resources. This reckless proposal from the Evers’ administration threatens to set up even more barriers to the outdoors for all Wisconsinites and we urge the legislative leaders to fully reject this fee increase.”

On his personal X account, Hilgemann said it was not the time to try and ram fee increases through, given a decline in hunter participation, an out-of-control wolf population, and the pending legislative audit of the Fish and Wildlife accounts .

Awaiting audit results

Meanwhile, even those who vociferously support the proposed fee increases acknowledge that the increases aren’t likely to happen until the results of the Legislative Audit Bureau’s audit of the accounts is in.

State Sen. Ron Stafsholt (R-New Richmond) was the leading lawmaker pushing for the audit, and, when the Joint Legislative Audit Committee directed the LAB to conduct the audit, he said it was critical to figuring out where the sportsmen and sportswomen dollars go. 

“I think it is imperative that our hunters, anglers and trappers know where their license dollars and fees are being spent, and that it is being spent by the DNR efficiently on things that are a priority for the people who are footing the bill,” Stafsholt said last year. “These sportsmen and sportswomen deserve accountability and transparency in the management of these funds. The results of the audit will provide insight on how Wisconsin will move forward to efficiently protect our natural resources and support these outdoor activities that are a vital part of Wisconsin’s heritage and economy.”

The audit is including expenditures of federal funds received from Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson grants, to identify any inefficiencies or mismanagement at the DNR. In 2023 Wisconsin received $33.7 million from Pittman-Robertson and $13.1 million from Dingell-Johnson.

At the time, Stafsholt shot down any notion of raising license fees before the audit was complete.

“There continues to be talk of more hunting and fishing license fee increases, even after the increases we did to some of the non-resident hunting and fishing licenses this session,” he said. “I believe additional license and fee increases on the backs of our sportsmen and sportswomen should be a non-starter until there is accountability and transparency in the management of their existing funding. We need to find out if there are other user groups of our natural resources who maybe do not contribute at all, or perhaps not enough, for the dollars they benefit from that are paid by sportsmen and sportswomen’s fees and licenses. Before we consider license and fee increases, we need to wait for the results of the audit.”

Stafsholt had called for the audit after the DNR announced the deficit in the account and after Stafsholt said the agency unexpectedly ended trout stocking partnerships with local sporting clubs in western Wisconsin.

The lawmaker observed that the state raised non-resident hunting, fishing, and combination license fees and that was estimated to have generated almost $2.5 million annually for the Fish and Wildlife fund. In addition, the senator said, there had been a one-time transfer of $25 million to the Fish and Wildlife account from the forestry account.

Not the only hot account

In reviewing the budget at last month’s NRB meeting, Hutter acknowledged that the Fish and Wildlife Management accounts were not the only hot button items in the agency budget.

Overall, Hutter said, the governor was seeking to pump up agency spending by close to $300 million to fund “exciting” new initiatives.

“We have a base budget of about $1.2 billion over two years,” she said. “Our standard budget adjustments, which are to keep the lights on, that was almost $18 million that we were asking for over two years, and then the governor is providing over $272 million of new spending in DNR’s budget, so that brings us to just under $1.5 billion for a two-year budget.”

Hutter said agency staffing was slightly decreasing, but only because certain federal projects were expiring. Plus, Evers was replacing much of the numerical loss by adding more for his new initiatives.

“Looking at our staffing metrics, at the last budget discussion we had with the board — that was in September — we talked about how we were removing 46 federal positions because they were project positions that were expiring …., but then the governor is proposing 36 new positions for the department in his budget, so a little extra capacity there for us to implement the initiatives,” she said.

Perhaps the most controversial and bold proposal in the agency’s budget is Evers’s bid to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund for 10 years with a huge increase in funding, from $33.25 million in current funding through fiscal year 2026 to $100 million in funding for each of 10 years from 2027 to 2036 at a total 10-year cost of $1 billion.

“Stewardship in this budget is a really awesome big program,” Hutter said. “The total of the current stewardship program is $33-and-a-quarter million per year. Under the governor’s recommendation, it’s $100 million per year for 10 years, so that’s a total of a billion dollars and that is a mix of bonding authority, forestry SEG [segregated fund revenues] and GPR.”

Hutter said the Stewardship Fund was pivoting away from land acquisition.

“It is really focusing on providing money for DNR and local governments to develop the land they have and take care of what we have,” she said. “So we’re retaining the $1 million set-aside for Ice Age Trail and Acquisitions, county forests grants are still at $3 million, there’s $6 million available for just general DNR acquisitions and then $14 million for grants to nonprofit conservation organizations for acquisition.”

Though land acquisition might be de-emphasized, that would mean the DNR still plans to spend $24 million a year on land acquisitions.

As for property development, the agency’s “Friends of State Parks” grants would increase from $500,000 a year to $2.5 million a year, and Hutter said there were also two new subprograms in the stewardship program, both funded with cash GPR.

“So one is $3 million for tribal grants and this is for the DNR and the tribes to manage projects collaboratively to increase educational opportunities — signage, interpretive displays on DNR-owned lands that have a historical tie to our tribal nations, and the other new program is cash funding for our nonprofit conservation organizations so they can provide wildlife and habitat management activities,” she said.

Finally, Hutter said, DNR property development would rise from $4.5 million a year now to just under $15.5 million per year. The final category of Stewardship was funding for local units of government.

“We have $5 million a year for motorized recreation grants for local governments or our recreation clubs, and this is a grant program that has historically existed and then it went away for a while and now it’s coming back,” she said.

Hutter said there was almost $4 million for parks operational supplies and services.

“This is just our standard needs, meaning trail maintenance and repair, testing the water at our facilities so we know it’s drinkable, keeping up with the facilities and then there are a couple properties that have never received supply budgets, and it’s providing a little supply money for [them],” she said. “Additionally there’s just over a million dollars for us to maintain some of our heavier equipment like mowers and UTVs. There’s almost a million dollars to purchase adaptive equipment to expand accessible recreation opportunities.” 

Hutter said their were also six project positions to help remove hazardous trees.

“Then the bill provides free admission for families with fourth graders, free admission and camping for tribal members, and one project position for wake boat research, so this would be a lot of GIS mapping of our lakes so that the legislature has this data available to them as they're making decisions about where it’s appropriate to be wake boating,” she said.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.