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Thanks Big Fin, beat me to it.

BigFin,

The Wildlife Cash Fund is simply a "sub fund" of the general fund. The very problems mudhen was referring to was addressed in the late 90's by the sport commission appointed to make recommendations (along with nonresident quotas, limited deer licenses, etc). ie: Revenues/funding from and for wildlife purposes will go back to the CDOW.

The state legislature signs the checks--it is required under the Colorado and US Constitutions that all monies go through the respective state/federal legislatures. That's a fundamental part of a republican form of government.

Also, the statute specifies in some cases where certian monies will go, education, nongame, habitat, etc.

I know reading statute can make one go blind (that's why lawyers are so wierd) but here is CRS 33-1-112 in its entirety, and I highlighted subsection 5:



CRS 33-1-112
(1) (a) Except as provided in subsections (7) and (8) of this section, sections 33-1-112.5 and 33-6-105, and in part 7 of article 22 of title 39, C.R.S., all moneys received from wildlife license fees, and all moneys from all other wildlife sources, and all interest earned on such moneys shall be deposited in the state treasury and credited to the wildlife cash fund, which fund is hereby created, and such moneys shall be utilized for expenditures authorized or contemplated by and not inconsistent with the provisions of articles 1 to 6 of this title for wildlife activities and functions and for the financing of impact assistance grants pursuant to part 3 of article 25 of title 30, C.R.S. All moneys so deposited in the wildlife cash fund shall remain in such fund to be used for the purposes set forth in the provisions of articles 1 to 6 of this title and shall not be deposited in or transferred to the general fund of the state of Colorado or any other fund.





(b) For the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2008, there shall be transferred one million two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the wildlife cash fund to the division of wildlife aquatic nuisance species fund, created in section 33-10.5-108.





(2) There is hereby created a stores revolving fund in the amount of eight hundred thousand dollars, which amount shall be maintained to acquire stock for warehousing and distributing supplies to operating units of the division. The moneys in such fund shall under no circumstances be used for the payment of operating expenses but shall be maintained intact as a revolving fund of eight hundred thousand dollars, composed of the following assets: Cash, accounts receivable, and inventory supplies. The purpose of the fund is to provide better budgetary control, and nothing contained in this subsection (2) shall authorize the division to make any purchases or acquisitions in any manner except as provided by law.





(3) There is hereby created the vanpool program revolving account. Receipts from participants in vanpools operated by the division shall be deposited to said account and shall be used only to pay the monthly operating and maintenance costs of such vans which are attributable to the use of such motor vehicles in carrying persons to and from work and to pay that portion of the purchase cost of replacement motor vehicles which is attributable to the use of the motor vehicles in carrying persons to and from work.





(3.5) (a) There is hereby created the wildlife management public education fund. Moneys in such fund shall consist of the surcharge authorized by section 33-4-102 (8.5), such moneys as the general assembly allocates to the fund, and moneys collected from gifts, donations, contributions, bequests, grants, and funds or reimbursements made from other sources to the wildlife management public education advisory council created in section 33-4-120.





(b) Moneys in the wildlife management public education fund shall be subject to annual appropriation and shall be used by the wildlife management public education advisory council for carrying out its duties as set forth in section 33-4-120, including, but not limited to, the reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by council members in fulfilling their duties, as approved by the director.





(c) All receipts and interest derived from the investment of moneys in the wildlife management public education fund shall be credited to such fund.





(4) The director of the division, with the consent and approval of the executive director, is authorized and directed to establish an adequate system of accounting which shall provide accurate and timely records of:





(a) All moneys received and from what sources;





(b) All moneys expended and for what purposes;





(c) All licenses that are issued, numbering each type separately.





(5) In his annual budget request to the governor, the executive director shall clearly show the allocations of funds used for wildlife purposes among operations, land acquisition, and capital construction and for any other purposes.




(6) The cost of nongame programs established under articles 1 to 6 of this title shall be borne by the general fund, the nongame and endangered wildlife cash fund, the wildlife cash fund, and any other sources deemed appropriate by the general assembly.





(7) (a) There is hereby created in the state treasury the wildlife for future generations trust fund. In addition to moneys appropriated to such fund by the general assembly, the commission is authorized to accept grants and donations for deposit in said fund. Moneys in the fund shall be accrued and maintained intact; only the interest earned on moneys in the fund shall be continuously appropriated and may be expended on such property operation and maintenance and other wildlife projects and programs as may from time to time be deemed appropriate by the commission. The fund is to be under the control of and to be administered by the commission. The controller shall authorize disbursements of interest earned on said fund as directed by the commission on receipt of a voucher from said commission stating that the disbursement is in accordance with this subsection (7). The commission shall submit an annual report of the moneys expended from the trust fund and matters accomplished by such expenditures from the preceding fiscal year to the senate agriculture, natural resources, and energy committee and the house of representatives agriculture, livestock, and natural resources committee by the convening date of each regular session of the general assembly in accordance with section 24-1-136 (9), C.R.S. The commission shall also submit to the senate agriculture, natural resources, and energy committee and the house of representatives agriculture, livestock, and natural resources committee a report on moneys proposed to be expended from the trust fund and the matters to be accomplished by such expenditures in the upcoming fiscal year. Interest earned on such fund that is not expended as provided shall remain in the wildlife for future generations trust fund for future expenditure as provided in this subsection (7). All moneys and interest in such fund shall remain in such fund to be used for the purposes set forth in this subsection (7) and shall not be deposited in or transferred to the general fund of the state of Colorado or any other fund.





(b) There is hereby created a wildlife habitat account in the wildlife for future generations trust fund, created in paragraph (a) of this subsection (7). The state treasurer shall deduct five million dollars from the wildlife cash fund, created in subsection (1) of this section, and transfer such sum to the wildlife habitat account. The interest earned on such five million dollars shall be continuously appropriated and shall be used solely for operation and maintenance of properties, leases, and easements owned by the division.





(8) (a) There is hereby created in the state treasury the habitat partnership cash fund. The moneys in the habitat partnership cash fund shall consist of those moneys annually transferred from the wildlife cash fund in accordance with paragraph (e) of this subsection (8) for the partnership program and any gifts, grants, donations, and reimbursements made to the program from other sources. The moneys in the fund shall be used in accordance with the duties of the habitat partnership council as specified in section 33-1-110 (7) and (8), including, but not limited to, reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by council members in the fulfillment of their duties, as approved by the director. All interest derived from the investment of moneys in the habitat partnership cash fund shall be credited to the fund. Any balance remaining in the fund at the end of any fiscal year shall remain in the fund subject to the limitations provided in paragraph (e) of this subsection (8).





(b) The council shall submit an annual report to the commission, the senate and house agriculture committees, and the executive director of the department of natural resources specifically stating the items for which it has expended moneys from the fund and the purpose of such items.





(c) If the council ceases to exist, all moneys in the habitat partnership cash fund shall revert to the wildlife cash fund.





(d) (Deleted by amendment, L. 96, p. 1729, � 2, effective June 3, 1996.)





(e) (I) On July 1, 2002, and each year thereafter, there shall be transferred from the wildlife cash fund to the habitat partnership cash fund an amount equal to five percent of the net sales of big game licenses used in the geographic areas represented by local habitat partnership committees from the previous calendar year.





(II) All moneys in the habitat partnership cash fund shall be continuously appropriated to the division of wildlife for the purpose of funding the habitat partnership program.





(III) Any balance in the habitat partnership cash fund at the end of the fiscal year shall not exceed the total amount of the wildlife cash fund transfer from the beginning of that fiscal year. Any excess moneys shall revert to the wildlife cash fund.





(IV) This paragraph (e) is repealed, effective July 1, 2015.

In other words, the Governor submits a budget to the legislature, and the legislature appropriates the money (signs the checks).



Casey

It might not be called the general fund,but if it walks like a duck,quacks like a duck,it sure as hell is a duck.
Those that think that all money collected by the DOW goes into the DOW fund are saddle mistaken.
This entire process was explained to me by the Brian Davies of the DOW office at Colorado Springs at a Hunters Advisory meeting.

Here's my solution -

Colorado should buy (forced) land cooridors to make roads to all the closed off Public Land so all these hunters they offering tags to can reach a place to hunt.

Easy - just make a State road to that area

The ABSOLUTE last thing I want is more roads--quite the opposite--I want LESS roads--SIGNIFICANTLY less roads.

Want good hunting? Go where the roads ain't.


Casey

The underlined statement is incorrect. See my comments at the bottom.

This is not a "sub fund" of the general fund. It is a special revenue fund, which are not sub funds of anything, not even the general fund. In most cases, the general fund will have NO sub funds. Assets are either part of the general fund itself, or part of some other sort of fund.

See the wiki link to FUND accounting I have included below.




I think we all agree on that one. Was never a point of discussion.




I agree about the going blind and the weird lawyers. I had read the entire statute to determine if, under accounting standards, the legislative madate allows for these funds to be part of the general fund. Nope, the legislative mandate does not allow the Wildlife Cash Fund to be part of the general fund.




Correct on this part. Gov submits the budget of how he/she will appropriate money from the wildlife cash fund, a special revenue fund, not a part of the general fund.


GENERAL FUND vs. OTHER FUND TYPES

The wildlife cash fund is separate from the general fund. It is a completely differnt type of fund and would never be part of the general fund. Both because of the statute specifically prohibiting it from being part of the general fund and because fund accounting principles would not allow it to be any part of the general fund.

Don't just trust me on this one, read the wiki links, or ask a CPA who has audited government agencies. I am one of those geeky pencil-necked CPAs who long ago, audited state agencies. The concept is called FUND accounting.

Fund accounting principles require that governmental agencies account for their revenues and expenditures by fund, with each fund having a specific purpose and governing legislation. There is always the general fund and many other types of funds, special revenue funds as is the case of the wildlife cash fund, and many others.

The general fund is where unrestricted revenue goes. Legislatures can mandate transfers of restricted funds to the general fund, but that is usually a pretty big battle, as those who established the restricted type funds are not happy to see their money go to the general fund. There are no sub funds or other parts to the general fund. If it does not meet the criteria to be accounted for under the general fund rules, it will be allocated to one of the other fund types and accounted for separately as a different fund.

All funds are accounted for separately by the designation of the authorizing legislation that establishes and governs such funds. The general fund is not a parent of any fund. There are no sub-funds of the general fund.

Here is a wiki link of how fund accounting works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fund_accounting

The DOW money would be a special revenue fund, as it is established on a specific law and such law requires separation from the general fund.

So, the comment that was made by some here that the wildlife cash fund is part of the general fund is incorrect. The comment that there is mingling of the wildlife cash fund with the general fund money is also incorrect.

The funds, per the statute you and I both quoted, cannot be mingled with the general fund. I think we agree on that.

We also agree that the governor must make a request to the legislature for the appropriation of funds from the special revenue funds, in this case titled the wildlife cash fund.

In most governing bodies, approprations from all funds, whether the general fund, restricted funds, special revenue funds, etc. require approval from the legislative arm.

Not wanting to make a big deal of this, but want to make sure people understand how these moneys are tracked and accounted for. And, how that process works to make sure your resident license dollars and my non-resident license dollars do not get mixed up and lost in the general fund.

Sorry for the boring disertation on Fund Accounting, but it does explain how legislative mandates are accounted for and how governments make certain earmarked funds do not get mingled with the general funds. Once money goes to a general fund, hunters and anglers are screwed.

There's not a state legislature nor a county commission anywhere in the west that is willing to commit political suicide by using the power of eminent domain to open landlocked public land to hunters. As Casey says, for the most part that's a good thing.

Saddlesore - What the hell is it called then? It is either the general fund as you stated, or it is not the general fund.

That duck analogy is one hell of a way to support what you stated as FACT. And, would be an intersting way to account for specifically earmarked money, such as the wildlife cash fund.

If you are so confident of misdirected money, provide some examples of misdirected money. And because you read it as a post on the internet does not qualify. Nor does, "I heard from ......"

Show me one type of revenue from DOW that is legilsatively earmarked for specific purpose that does not go to the special revenue funds for DOW, mostly the wildlife cash fund. If that happens, someone needs to blow a whistle and contact the legislative auditors office and get it corrected.

I doubt anyone is sorely mistaken. Maybe your intepretation of the second hand comments in topics you are not well informed of.

If someone talks like a duck, acts like a duck, most often, they are ..... ah, hell with it.

Thanks for posting that, alpinecrick. The Wildlife Cash Fund has nothing to do with the General Fund. The Governor must sign off on the CDOW budget, but he really has no discretion about how the CDOW spends their money. Note the end of the portion that Casey highlighted: "and for any other purposes." The fact that they have no control over how the CDOW spends money has been a thorn in the sides of the Governor and legislators for a long time.

The only example of Governor's discretion I can think of is the ongoing out-of-state travel ban in effect for all state government employees due to the state budget crisis. Governor Ritter extended the ban to the CDOW because, "it wouldn't be fair" to let them travel out of state when employees of other agencies could not travel.

*Edit- Got interupted while I was writing this...I see that Big Fin has added far more since I started....

BigFin.Why the hell you getting so upset.You are in MT. I am relating what DOW officials have told me and that is they very seldom get all the money back that is kicked into them from license sales,fines, etc.

Brian Davies at CO DOW, Colo Sprgs, Bruce Watkins,who I think is in the Durango area now, Lyle Zidener who is on the western slope now, Ron Zacchinini who was near Tarryall, and Tonya Sharp are DOW people I have talked to about this.

They sure as hell do not post this info on the internet and that is not where I got it. I'd sure as heck believe them vs what I read on the internet.But hey, maybe sitting up there in MT ,you know more than they do, since you Google and Wiki all your info it seems.

I might have made it a mistake by calling it the general fund,but that is what DOW officials have repeatdly told me.

Who's upset? Not me.

Let,s both go take a valium.It isn't that important to me.

Me neither. Good idea.

Hope you have a great hunting season in 2011.

BigFin,

You are correct. It was inaccurate of me to describe it as a sub fund, I just couldn't think of the correct way to describe it off the top of my head.

Instead the special fund is part of the budget and goes through the same process as the rest of the state budget/expenditures--that's what I was trying to say.

And this special fund was specifically created to stop the legislature from spending wildlife money on other state expenditures.


Casey

Why isn't the DOW taxpayer funded? They didn't seem to mind letting the general public vote on the trapping ban in 1996. Seems like that shouldn't have happened if it is self funded...

On a side note, i doubt there is one unit in this whole state that is at, or above carrying capacity for deer. Yet, they continue to kill does, and scratch their heads on why mulie numbers are down.

Bring back trapping, up the lion tags, quit shooting does, dump the 4th season, and we might return to the glory years of mulie hunting again.

Dogcatcher.You are sure right there.I hunt the SE corner of Flat Tops,up past Sweetwater lake.
We use to see 40-50 deer a day until the bad winter kill of 2007/2008 in that area. Yet the DOW still offers it as a two deer area,. In the last two years,we were lucky to see maybe 6 deer the entire season. Last year,I saw one doe and two fawns.

They can't. Can't use state money, can't publicly oppose or support a ballot initiative. Believe me, I tried when the spring bear/hound hunting initiative was on the ballot.







The statewide lion quota has doubled, or maybe tripled, in the past 20 years. Often, the quotas aren't even filled.

The peak of 1.1 million deer in the late 60's/early 70's was a gross overpopulation. Most of the southern Rocky Mountain states were overpopulated.

Indeed, some of decline, and subsequent difficulty in increasing muley populations may be attributed to over browsing during that era.

It's important to remember muleys have declined across most of their historical range--regardless of which state is managing them. It's just that Colorado muley population had the furtherest to fall.

1. Poor transition range (spring-fall) mostly because of fire suppression.

2. Elk population explosion.


Casey

Some of the CDOW's advertising expenditures seem to be done without their buy-in.

Some time ago I wrote an email to the CDOW. I questioned why they were using their funds to suport National Public Radio. The point I made to them was npr tends to be on the opposite side of any hunting/shooting recreation. Also - if you are looking to get the best response from advertising $ spent then that's probably the worst media outlet they could choose.

Their response to me was that they had nothing to do with that endeavor. They said that was the idea of someone in the state legislature and they weren't asked about whether or where to do it - just told to supply the message.

Kinda makes you wonder about the ads that are running now.