by George Gramlich, News and Commentary
Another year, another round of taxes and fees to ensure that the government gets well fed while our real incomes decline. Welcome to today’s “Colorado/East California” Outdoor Mecca with a highlight on Colorado’s expanded war on hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. 
You have heard it forever from the politicians, the government employees, and the statist, tax loving liberals, “It’s only….”. Yup, add up all those “It’s only…” over the years and decades and its now not “only”. It’s oppressive penalties of real money to real people and it hurts. It’s punitive and increases the amount of people who literally can’t afford to hunt or fish anymore and also dramatically increases the number of citizens who will hunt or fish without a license. They are making criminals out of poor people.
Instead of encouraging our interest in traditional outdoor activities, the government is actively discouraging it by higher and higher prices on these targeted, rural outdoor recreational items.
Why are they picking on hunters and fisherman? You don’t see the Denver politicians forcing city bicycle riders paying fees for those insane bike lanes in the city which cost a fortune and cause untold traffic issues. No, the city folk can ride for free. Not us. City – Good. Country – Bad.
It really seems that the State of Colorado is trying to limit access to hunting and fishing and discourage the people from enjoying our beautiful state.
So for 2019 we see dozens of fee increases for almost all hunting and fishing activities as well as visits to our state parks. We’re not talking 1% or 3% raises. We’re talking major raises including 35% to 100%
increases!
Please see the tables for the whole picture, but here are some of the more egregious increases (from 2018 to 2019):
Resident Licenses: Annual Fishing License – $25 to $33 (a 32% increase); Senior Annual Fishing License (age 65+) – from ZERO to $8 (800% increase!!!); Low-income Senior Lifetime Fishing License – from ZERO to $8; 1-day Fishing License – from $8 to $12
(50% increase).
Small Game Licenses: Annual Small Game Hunting License – from $20 to $28 (a 40% increase); Fall Turkey License – from $15 to $23 (a 53% increase!); Spring Turkey License – from $20 to $28 (a 40% increase). (Hey turkey hunters, is one bird worth $28?)
Nonresident Licenses: Annual Fishing License – from $55 to $95 (simply insane.)
Resident Big Game
Licenses: Deer, Elk, Pronghorn, Bear and Mountain License all go up $8 with the percentage increases varying from 27% (eg, Deer from $30 to $38) to 20% for Bear and Lion ($40 to $48).
Moose, Mountain Goat, Bighorn Sheep (Desert and Rocky Mountain) go up substantially from $250 to $300 (a 20% increase).
Camping Fee Changes: The price to enter OUR parks goes up again, anywhere from $4 per night to $11 per night.
Welcome to East California hunters, fishermen, and campers. Only the rich get to play outdoors. The rest of us are confined to the bike lanes.