Panel adopts LFC recommendation for Game and Fish budget; director urges $2 million licensing upgrade

Austin Davidson, the LFC natural resource analyst, presented the Department of Game and Fish budget difference sheet, telling the committee the LFC recommendation is $932,700 higher than the executive recommendation largely because LFC assumes a larger distribution from the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund.

Davidson and DFA analyst Monica Tapia said both the executive and LFC recommendations fund higher health and risk insurance premiums and increased field work costs, and both increase contractual-services budgets funded by other revenues to cover equipment upkeep, repairs, and utilities.

Director Mike Sloan told the committee that Legacy Fund dollars are "critically important" to work on species of greatest conservation need and said the agency used recent funding to hire eight additional biologists. Sloan also urged support for a $2,000,000 IT licensing modernization, calling the funding "critically important to us" to secure and modernize the agency’s licensing system and warning that partial funding would not be sufficient.

The acting vice chair then called for a motion. Representative Little moved adoption of the LFC recommendation; Representative Brown seconded. One objection was recorded from Representative Pettigrew, but the committee adopted the recommendation.

What’s next: committee members will see the agency again as the budget process continues; the transcript records no further immediate legislative action on the licensing modernization request.