I sent the suggestion instead of increasing license fees by 100%, why not increase the application fee across the board? If they increased the application fee to $10-15 across the board but not increase the overall cost of the license wouldn't they bring in more revenue? The application fee isn't refundable and the base sharing the costs would be greater. There is already a $15 fee on any turned in tags for refund or point returns they could just add that fee to all refunds.
There was almost 200K elk applications in 2016 and at $10 non refundable application fee that would be almost 2 million dollars and a net gain of almost 1.4 million. Net gain for deer would be nearly 1.3 million and a nearly 400K for pronghorn. So right there they would see a 3 million dollar revenue boost without raising the overall cost of any big game tag. There isn't an application fee for small game or fishing so why not just increase the tags by $5 for each one or $8 on a combo.
I wonder what's going to happen with tags like OTC bear. Who's going to throw an $80 tag in their pocket for the slim chance of seeing a bear on an elk or deer hunt. I'll still apply for all my normal tags, but I'll stop picking up OTC tags for areas I didn't want to originally hunt. I'll start saving that money to go on hunts out of state or overseas. If I start throwing all my refunds into a slush fund for hunting at $1000 per year in Colorado apps for my daughter and I, and $2000 with 100% increase it wouldn't take long to go somewhere else on a hunt.
