I believe some of the returns of the fishing excise tax, 10% on most items that you buy, are distributed based on the number of anglers in the state. The more licenses the more money.

I also believe this money is on top of what is allocated to the DEP's budjet. But for the most part it is not being used to it's fullest. Other fees collected by the DEP just go into the General fund. Even if we were to generate a surplus of funds through licences and other DEP sales there would be no extra money in the DEP budjet. That money just goes to the General fund. That is the way almost everything is setup in this state. The Lottery was supposed to be used for Education. All it did was offset the spending instead of the money coming out of towns or the states budjets it first came from the Lottery then the town or state. It never added money to the bottom line. There were no additional supplies being purchased, the budjet was the budget period and the general fund reaps the excess.