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Fishing News in Olympia

2.9K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  Jim Wallace  
#1 ·
#2 ·
Absolutely fascinating. Based on what I read certain seasons that open after July 1st, simply would not open such as some salmon fishing and the crab season. It also sounds like the hatcheries would be completely shut down with the fish in those hatcheries left to basically die. It didn't sound like any of the fisheries currently open would be closed but even if they were it also sounded like all enforcement would be suspended minus 2 full time employees for the state. So those poaches caught on Fish Lake, yeah you can expect a lot more of that.

Hmm, this could turn into some interesting chaos if folks in the house and senate don't pull their collective heads out of their arses and find away to compromise. I'm talking both sides of the isle folks. If they don't maybe as sportsman we make a pack to unload the lot of them and start our own party. I'll run, but don't expect anything less than an open critical thinking approach to things if you vote for me, I don't pander to emotional rhetoric that well.
 
#5 ·
Wow! Where is all the tax revenue going? Down some black hole?
When you look at the state's gross tax revenue, it's tempting to think waste until you spend a bit of time looking at exactly what the state does with that money.

Something like 90¢ on the dollar of the state's general fund is allocated to supporting just three required missions: education, medication and incarceration. None are optional.

The supreme court's McCleary decision requires the state to increase it's historic underfunding of K-12 education to the tune of $1B over the next budget cycle. Medicaid and other medical programs are required by law and aren't going away. Opening the gates at the state's prisons and letting the inmates go free is also not an option.

So that leaves the question of what to do with the other 10¢? The short answer is that dime is split into many small pieces to pay for everything else the state provides.

Everyone here howls at all the user fees now being charged, especially for recreational use. User fee income does not go into the general fund but rather stays with the department that generated it. Thankfully, if it weren't for those fees (and fines from citations), WDFW would have shut down a long time ago thanks to continual reductions in financial support from the general fund. Same with DNR and Parks.

As a larger question though, the current budget impasse is as much about increasing demands on a finite amount of money as it is political intransigence.

Yes, the amount of money the state spends rises every year. But it's not rising as quickly as the population is growing, so the per capita expenditure is actually falling. The state's population is expected to hit 9 million by 2020. That means a lot more kids going to school and a lot more folks using state medical programs, being sent to prison, and wearing out roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

IMHO, the long-term fix is that Washington will eventually have to implement a state income tax (just like Oregon will have to implement a sales tax). Relying solely on sales tax, B&O and property taxes to fund delivery of increasingly utilized state services is less and less viable.

Can you imagine paying 15% or 20% sales tax? Neither can I.

K
 
#8 ·
Tis is not so much about not having funds but about the legislature and various special interest groups (politics) unable to agree on how to spend what they have. It is bad enough that they can not get their "job" done without special sessions their inability to come to some sort of agreement put the rest of us at risk. Every incumbent should be voted out of office!

Curt
 
#9 ·
Tis is not so much about not having funds but about the legislature and various special interest groups (politics) unable to agree on how to spend what they have. It is bad enough that they can not get their "job" done without special sessions their inability to come to some sort of agreement put the rest of us at risk. Every incumbent should be voted out of office!

Curt
agreed
 
#11 ·
It's a shame that the political system doesn't work like other jobs. If most people don't do the job they were hired for on a consistent basis they get fired. Sadly when we the people 'fire' a politician the replacement is also a career politician.
 
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#13 ·
That's one to ponder! I'm a surfer, and I have to live on the coast near some decent consistent surfing. I sort of like it here. Staircase, Quinault, and even the upper Bogey are not too far. For lake fishing, and much thanks to Jim Speaker for the invite to fish with him there, I recently "discovered" Lake Crescent.
 
#18 ·
Well people could move to Frazer river valley in B.C. But when I checked property values and housing cost two years ago I was shocked. seems plenty of retirees have already fled the country (or Washington) and bought up all the land and sky rocketed the prices. even just a double wide prefab home was over $100,000.

You could move to Oregon but than you would have to pay taxes right out of your check! No driving out of state to buy your big items and you would pay more in taxes.

Also many of you would join the "WILD FISH CRUSADE" And try and wipe-out our brood stock and hatchery programs so the fishing would suck just like it does in many of your S.W. Washington rivers right now and you'd be right back where you started in Washington - only you would be paying more taxes.

You could always move to Idaho, but than you would lobby to destroy all the hatchery fish that swim up the Columbia by the hundreds of thousands.

It amazes me that I have heard of no riots or picketing yet? if this happened in Oregon - Salem would come to a dead stop with the people who would flock to the capital in rebellion. Even when we were fighting against the netters 100's of people showed with boats in tow to block much of Salem with protests, from guides to the normal Joe, they made there presence known. Living in Portland it amazes me how many people from Washington drive across the bridge to get items so they do not have to pay taxes, but this is what the "SMART PEOPLE DO" heck I just read a thread from a guy from fife on a different forum wanting to know where the best prices are in Portland since he was headed this way he could spend a bunch and not pay sales tax.

When I fish in Washington I don't stop in Oregon for my supplies, I always get food and other items for the trip at small stores in the area I fish and make a point to support the area. from the store in Toutle when I fish coldwater to four corners (and the old fishing shop) when I used to fish the East fork, to Stevenson and Home Valley. when I fish Drano and white salmon and many other Columbia back waters for salmon and steel.

But than I'm just a mouth breathing - knuckle dragging - toothless heathen. I buy the discovery pass and don't complain, I have purchased an out of state Washington fishing lic. since the 80's (every year) when I could buy my gear in Oregon for some reason I always buy gear from a local store out of Stevenson or in Home Valley because I feel i should and pay the sale tax to support Washington when I am fishing in your state. heck me and a friend rented a motel last summer in Stevenson when we could of just drove across to Cascade locks and not pay the taxes. We could of bought all our cures and bait in Oregon but we opted to buy it at home valley, over a $100 of stuff and payed the taxes. I feel if I am going to fish in Washington I should support your state. thanks to Idaho (and some upper Columbia Washington fisheries) Drano, White salmon, and many other areas are full of silvers - Chinook - and steelhead swinging in for the cool waters during there Columbia up-stream migration almost all summer long. These are some of the biggest concentrations of fish in the lower 48 and i feel fortunate to be able to fish them so I try and do my part.

But then I'm not very SMART!
 
#19 ·
Fish stocks with no commercial value seem to do just fine... just imagine what our steelhead and salmon fisheries would look like if they had no price tag hanging off their tail.

I suggest all the disgruntled Washingtonians move to CA... payback time... in more ways than one! ;)
 
#22 ·
While we and our elected officials are all busy beating the hell out of one another, pissing over who's entitled to what and thinking how great life would be if everyone else would just see the world through our glasses, I saw this quote and thought it to be spot on...especially for a fishing forum.

"If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles"
 
#23 ·
Talking about taxes. I have lived here in Montana going on 8 years now. Hell, I still can't get used to the idea that all you pay is the sticker price for things. $9.99 is just that.

Also when I was in Washington a few years ago, I stopped at the Cabela's in Lacey and picked up a big item. The clerk told me because I'm from Montana I didn't have to pay sales tax. That has happened to me twice.
 
G
#33 ·
Talking about taxes. I have lived here in Montana going on 8 years now. Hell, I still can't get used to the idea that all you pay is the sticker price for things. $9.99 is just that.

Also when I was in Washington a few years ago, I stopped at the Cabela's in Lacey and picked up a big item. The clerk told me because I'm from Montana I didn't have to pay sales tax. That has happened to me twice.
do you have to pay state income tax?
 
#27 ·
Kent wrote: "Everyone here howls at all the user fees now being charged, especially for recreational use. User fee income does not go into the general fund but rather stays with the department that generated it. Thankfully, if it weren't for those fees (and fines from citations), WDFW would have shut down a long time ago thanks to continual reductions in financial support from the general fund. Same with DNR and Parks."

Very well put Kent and this has irked me since moving to WA four years ago. I lived most of my life in NY state (Rochester - no where near NY City) and know what it means to be taxed. As some have suggested in this thread, more taxes going in the general fund do not solve the problem because it only grows the government. Before you know it taxes need to be raised to support it and its programs. Everyone I know in NY that is sick and tired of income and other taxes cries out for user fees/taxes. Well, that is what is being tried here with the Discovery Pass etc. and all I hear is bitching about having to pay for what I use. I don't get it. I learned a long time ago that you shouldn't expect anything for nothing, yet human nature expects just that.
 
#28 ·
I've supported the Discovery Pass and other user fees without bitchin' about em, and will continue to do so. I won't spend any more money on 'em unless I can go fishing and use the state parks, though.
As a matter of fact, I'll bet our folks representing us in Oly will arrive at some kind of a consensus this week. To do otherwise would surely be risking political suicide. If they don't pass a budget, I'm blaming all of em, and I'll be forced to vote for a "Green Party" candidate next election. :confused: That should scare 'em into action!
 
#29 ·
. . .If they don't pass a budget, I'm blaming all of em, and I'll be forced to vote for a "Green Party" candidate next election. :confused: That should scare 'em into action!
And with political powerhouses like you and I heading the ticket, they'll be laughing so hard tears will be running down their legs.

K
 
#31 ·
Can I de-register to vote? Lately, voting seems like a waste of time. If we throw the current crop of bums out, then Freestoneangler will undoubtedly vote for the Libertarian candidate, effectively canceling out my Green Party vote.
I suggest that we all de-register, and then go fishing!;) When we return with clear heads, we can start up a new political system that works and leaves Empire wondering where we all went.
 
#32 ·
Lately, when I imagine our WA State reps and senators conducting business as usual, what I envision is not pretty. I see an ugly scene of two blind and crippled stage coach drivers attempting to flog the other's dead horse, but the flogfest becomes so convoluted that they end up blindly flogging their own dead horse along with their adversary's, as well as flogging their own passengers in the now immobile stage coaches. :confused:

I'm not trying to take sides here, as I consider myself to be an "independent."
However, removing all money from lobbying would be a good start. No taking of our elected reps to lunch or dinner on expense accounts. Absolutely no monetary political donations nor free airtime for political messages. Equal public funding for all candidates, so big money backing is no longer an issue. See where I'm going?

Furthermore, mandatory minimum 20 years of hard labor for any elected rep convicted of taking a bribe.
 
#34 ·
The sad thing is, if we've learned anything from the past, is our elected officials will pat each other on the back and give themselves huge raises for resolving this issue when all is said and done.