Senate Bill 941 drives license consolidation and revenue gains; nonresident hunter counts fall, commission hears

Andrea, a department staff member, told the Wildlife Conservation Commission on an agency report that Senate Bill 941 (the "wildlife modernization" bill) consolidated dozens of hunting and fishing licenses and changed fee structures, producing notable revenue gains but also a decline in some nonresident license sales.

"I'm here to talk about the impact of Senate Bill 941, the wildlife modernization bill," Andrea said, introducing a detailed slide presentation based on data from the department’s Go Outdoors vendor and the agency’s licensing records. She said the analysis compared the first half of fiscal 2025 to the same point in fiscal 2024 and that some year-to-year comparisons were complicated by license consolidation and a rush of purchases before July 1 fee changes took effect.

The presentation showed that aggregated revenue across 32 license categories was up about 30 percent — a little over $4 million — through the period analyzed. Andrea reported fiscal-year-to-date license revenue of $31,879,914 through Nov. 30, 2024, versus $26,256,247 for the same period a year earlier. Expenditures through Nov. 30 rose as well, to $32,224,127 from $25,390,878 the prior year.

Why it matters: the fee and privilege changes were intended to simplify license types and to recover costs; commissioners were told the changes are already shifting what individual…