With the Wyoming Game and Fish Department facing a looming budget crisis, some hope a trust fund could bail out the department without getting bogged down in the politics of being tied to state pursestrings.
Game and Fish could end up trying to thread a needle of securing seed money for the trust fund through the Wyoming Legislature without tapping into the general fund.
At least in concept, the plan is to set up a trust fund from which Game and Fish could draw a percentage of yield, such as a few million dollars a year to help pay for personnel or cheatgrass mitigation.
The process is in the early stages. The Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife, and Cultural Resources Committee on Wednesday worked a pair of bill drafts to set up the fund.
The committee didn’t vote on whether to forward the bills to the 2027 legislative session. That decision is expected after more working on the bills and public testimony during the committee’s next meeting in November.
‘Juggernaut Of Support’
Meanwhile, the idea of a Game and Fish trust fund has the state’s hunting and conservation community buzzing, Jessi Johnson, government affairs director for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, told Cowboy State Daily.
“There is a juggernaut of support from the sporting community to look at how we support wildlife for the next 100 years,” Johnson said.
Noting that the proposed amount of money for the trust fund has yet to be determined, backers hope it's substantial, she said.
“God, I hope we dream big,” she said.
Bob Budd, executive director of the long-established Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, said that trust holds roughly $200 million.
Trust funds “work very well, or they cannot work well,” depending upon how they’re managed, Budd told Cowboy State Daily.
Avoiding the General Fund
A few ideas are on the table about how to establish a Game and Fish Trust Fund, Johnson said.
Some might include state energy severance tax revenue, private donations, and money transferred from other state savings accounts, she said.
Pulling from the state’s general fund isn’t a good option, Johnson added. That would require Game and Fish going before the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee to request yearly allocations.
And that could lead to legislators trying to “sit in a biologist’s seat at the legislative level,” she said.
The Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust was established through donations and from state energy revenue funds, Budd said.
Active Funds
Ideally, a trust fund isn’t like a savings account that sits idle and generates interest, Budd said.
Instead, it’s akin to an investment fund.
“It’s not interest (being generated),” he said. “It’s yield. From stock gains, bonds coming due” and the like.
An annual yield of 4% for expenditures seems to be the sweet spot, Budd said.
Any yield over 4% can be put back into the fund “to help inflation-proof it,” he said.
“It’s a stable source of funding, though there can be some fluctuation,” he added.
The Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust and a hypothetical Game and Fish Trust Fund would have some overlap in terms of project funding.
Budd’s trust fund generates money for a variety of projects, including habitat improvement, conservation easements, wetlands preservation, wildlife highway crossing, and wildlife-friendly fencing.
A Game and Fish trust might fund such projects, but it could also go toward “taking good care” of Game and Fish personnel, Johnson said.
Seeking Stability
The bulk of Game and Fish’s funding, roughly 60%, comes from hunting and fishing license sales, department CFO Meredith Wood told legislators Wednesday.
Another 21% or so comes through federal aid, Wood said.
That includes Wyoming’s share of funds from the federal Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson acts. Through those acts, tax revenue from the sale of firearms, ammunition, archery gear, boat fuel, and the like is funneled into wildlife agencies and conservation at the state level.
The federal money doesn’t go directly into Game and Fish’s coffers, Wood explained. Instead, it’s reimbursed toward qualifying expenditures at the end of each fiscal year.
And some important budget items, such as funding for law enforcement and game warden payroll, don’t qualify, Wood said.
Johnson said Game and Fish has probably hit a wall when it comes to raising license and hunting tag fees.
The last across-the-board hike was in 2008. And hunters, particularly non-residents, likely wouldn’t stomach any more price hikes, she said.
Moreover, neither the department nor the Game and Fish Commission can raise license and tag fees, Johnson noted. That requires legislative action, which can be a long and messy process.
The Next 100 Years
If the money generated from license sales hasn’t kept pace with inflation, a trust fund could generate a more reliable revenue source for Game and Fish, she said.
Likewise, the federal funds come with conditions and also fluctuate greatly from year to year, depending on federal allocations, Johnson said.
A trust fund could provide budgetary stability while avoiding resentment and spats over such issues as non-resident versus resident tag prices, she said.
If the past 100 years were about establishing Wyoming’s rich wildlife heritage, the next 100 years should be about preserving it, Johnson said. And the hope is that a Game and Fish trust fund could help accomplish that, she added.
“I want the number (in the trust fund) that makes it so that our descendants in 100 years have trophy bull elk bugling from the mountain tops, like we do now. And that will take a lot of money,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
