A proposed rate hike for fishing and hunting licenses will get its first hearing before a state House committee Tuesday.

House Bill 140, introduced by Rep. Jeffrey Welborn, R-Dillon, would increase funding  through the license fee increases to help cover Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' funding shortfall, with a $5.7 million deficit projected by 2017.

Two major changes under the bill are a new base hunting license, $10 for residents and $15 for nonresidents, and a bump from $18 to $21 for annual resident fishing licenses.

Ron Aasheim, an agency spokesman, said the proposal is the result of increased responsibilities for the agency, inflation and a larger share of the fish and game budget being earmarked for specific programs.

“Historically, about every 10 years we have asked for a fee increase,” Aasheim said. “The first four or five years we take in more money than we need to run the agency, then as costs increase and new responsibilities are added … we start spending that savings account.”

Last fall, Gov. Steve Bullock created a license funding advisory committee to explore the issue and submit a funding proposal to the Environmental Quality Council, a joint interim committee of the state Legislature. 

The council approved the proposal, but reduced the proposed increase on fishing licenses from $6 to $3, eliminating a $500,000 contingency fund the agency had requested.

Aasheim said the revised proposal is projected to keep Fish, Wildlife and Parks revenue-neutral through the next funding cycle. Under the bill, those cycles would happen every four years, rather than every ten.

Two years ago the agency cut $1.2 million from its budget to stay afloat, aided by a temporary rise in federal funds to the agency from ammunition sales. 

If the funding bill isn't approved, Aasheim said, the agency has explored significant cuts across all departments aside from parks. Enforcement, hunter harvest surveys, upkeep to fishing access sites, state hatcheries, cutthroat trout restoration and grizzly bear management could all face significant cutbacks.

Part of the new base hunting license fee would add funding to the state's block management program for hunter access, which pays private landowners who allow public hunting on their land. The popular program has seen funding shrink in recent years, and a separate measure currently in the House Natural Resources Committee, House Bill 146, also seeks to restore some of its funding.

The House Committee on Fish, Wildlife and Parks will meet to discuss the bill at 3 p.m., Jan. 27 in state Capitol Room 152 in Helena.

Other changes in the bill include:

-The age requirement for senior discounts would increase from 62 to 67.

-Nonresident two-day fishing licenses would increase from $15 to $25.

-Nonresident 10-day fishing licenses would increase from $43.50 to $56

-Additional increases in nonresident special licenses for big game.

-Changes to fees for nonresident hunters with disabilities.

Reporter Samuel Wilson may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.