State doesn't misuse funds from license sales to hunters, anglers
By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 14, 2011, 8:03PM


Texas hunters and anglers begin a pair of annual rituals Monday ­­- purchasing new hunting/fishing licenses and grumbling about how the state "steals" part of that license revenue.

There's no way around the first part of the ritual; all current Texas hunting licenses and most fishing licenses expire Aug. 31, and new 2011-12 licenses, which become available for purchase Monday, are required on Sept. 1.

But that second ritual is a bit of misguided, or at least misdirected, animosity arising from the license-buying public's understandable misunderstanding of the Byzantine budget maneuvers the Texas Legislature uses to produce its constitutionally mandated balanced budget.

The common belief is that part of the approximately $90 million Texas hunters and anglers pay annually for the more than 2 million licenses is siphoned out of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department coffers and used to finance unrelated state programs. This is a persistent myth.

Not a cent of fishing or hunting license fees goes into the state's General Revenue Fund or other accounts used to pay for non-outdoors-related state programs or services. All of it goes directly into the Game, Fish and Water Safety Fund — officially, Fund 9 - which, by law, can be used only to fund TPWD programs.

But that's not to say Texas' hunters and anglers, its wildlife and fisheries resources and the agency charged with managing them aren't shortchanged when it comes to how license revenue is spent - or, more correctly, not spent.

Stagnant money


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/outdoors/tompkins/7696433.html#ixzz1V76UB5SI

I have heard that some of the $$ from license sales and sporting goods taxes goes to the general fund. Never have seen it published under any TAC stating it does not. But to be fair I have not researched it much either. If any does go outside of TPWD then that should be changed.

Right,

Read the full article. It is correct that our license fees are deposited in a TPW account and expenditures from that account can only be for TPW purposes but the TPW account can be used to offset any expense that the legislature choses. For example, the $700,000 that we have spent renting a home for the Governor can be paid from another account and, on paper, be offset by tying up $700,000 of TPW funds.Voila, the budget is balanced!! In the meantime over 100 TPW employees are fired because of the budget cuts. So the bottom line is that our license fees can go to cover any expenditure that the legislature and governor approves. All by shuffling paper!!!

Don't mean to come off sounding so political but I got out of that phony budget shuffling business years ago.

Wow,I'm sure they can shuffle paper around like that.Who's gonna tell them no?