Colorado game and parks makes as much as any 2 western states combined, before this pp fee nonsense started. Do you really believe they needed more money?
If you look at historical budgets of the Division of Wildlife before it merged with Parks, you'll see that Colorado was right on par with Montana and Wyoming, with less expensive tags.
Fact is, we have many more resident and non-resident hunters than either one of those states.
I'm glad you chose Montana and Wyoming as a comparative. Let's punch in the numbers for 2018 from the USFWS to see how they stack up.
Colorado has 104,185 sq miles
Montana and Wyoming combine for 244,954 sq miles
Colorado has 294,319 licensed hunters
M&W combine for 383,716 licensed hunters
Colorado took in $57,056,595 in hunting license revenue
M&W combined for $48,331,587
Now someone explain to me how letting them create new revenue streams, when they have 140,769 fewer sq miles to cover, 89,397 fewer hunters to deal with, and already take in $8,725,000 more than Montana and Wyoming combined, is a good idea? And please, save the "if you dont like it dont hunt here" arguement for my 8yr old nephew. He'd gladly respond with how his dad could beat up your dad. Give me an intelligent response. They've become another government bureaucracy that spends money like drunken sailors! Bowing to new revenue streams just makes us enablers.
And for the record, I drew a buck antelope tag, a buck deer tag, and a bull elk tag. I think CP&W is doing a fine job. I just dont see these new revenue streams converting to better habitat, and better quality and number of animals.
