Todd,

I'm painfully aware of that impact, since I'm the Ct Waterfowler's Association delegate to the DEP's Conservation Advisory Council.

In 2009, many funds were swept into the General Fund at the same time the License Fees were doubled. This was part of the larger budget deal struck between Gov Rell and the Legislature around Labor Day last year. BTW, the Duck Stamp fund was one of ONLY TWO interest bearing accounts in the state. I believe the actual balance in the account was $322,000 when those funds were swept. Not a million, but still very painful, since sportsmen WILLINGLY contributed those monies FOR DUCKS, NOT FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Back to the 2009 history: The funds sweep and License fee doubling caused two distinct parallel actions by sportsmen:

1) a group of six of us in the CAC delegates organized an initial meeting of sportsmen at Cabelas in September to get the word out about the fee increases and this meeting spawned a larger follow up meeting in November. This in turn led to other grass roots efforts, such as those by CTF members, to make the sportsmen's case to legislators.

2) Duck Stamp advisory Council members, and Ct's DU state chairman, Larry Davis, began working with several legislators to craft a renewed Duck Stamp that would be immune to Funds sweeps in the future, just like the Long Island Sound License plate funds. (You may remember that the Atty Gen ruled that LIS plates were optional purchases with funds given to the state specifically to benefit LIS.)

Well, the folks working the duck stamp issue focused on both reducing the stamp to a more reasonable increase, and then trying to build in language that made these funds "sweep proof" going forward.

Upon passage of the fees reduction bill this spring, duck stamp fees were addressed. The results were fairly encouraging.

1. Duck Stamp fee set at $13, with a $2 donation suggested to start building up the fund again. The $2 donations will be treated like the LIS funds that cannot be swept into the general fund. Not a perfect solution, but as described by one of our lobbyists "We got the camel's nose inside the tent, so now we can get the rest of him to follow". Future goal would be just that..to get the rest of the funds insulated by making them all "donations".

My fear is that sportsmen don't realize how much value we get from the duck stamp monies, approximately $3 in value for every $1 we pay. I hope that stamp purchases don't continue to decline, since we need those funds for wildlife.


Anyway, enough of my rambling. My suggestion, please buy a duck stamp...or two.


Dave