Special Taxes

Like i have mentioned before a lot of people spend a lot of money on the sport of hunting and fishing, but although that is great for the economy it is also important for the conservation of wildlife and their habitat. Practically everything you purchase now a days is taxed right. But do you know where that extra money goes. Well if you are purchasing any hunting or fishing equipment you should know that the federal and many state governments have special taxes that apply to the purchase of fishing tackle and powerboat fuel. The federal government channels millions of these funds into state recreational, fish and wildlife conservation projects every year. Anglers pay more than any other group to support conservation projects through the Sport Fish Restoration Program and many communities have benefited from fishing based taxes to fund boat launch ramps and mooring facilities for transient fishing vessels.Now what about the taxes on other things used for hunting like firearms? Well firearms and ammunition have special taxes on them as well which go towards the intention to get kids to experience the outdoors. For instance these taxes goes towards the huntersaftey course like I took my two boys to. These taxes make courses like these free and help maintain the outdoors that myself and my kids love. Although many taxes can be a pain to pay but when it comes times to dishing out a few extra bucks for these special taxes I don't mind do to the places that it goes towards.

What if Hunting and Fishing came to an End

It is no secret that the Humane Society or the ASPCA is all about the animals and would love to stop hunting all together. But what many people might not know is how their ideals might not always be in our best interest. For instance the CEO of the Humane Society stated that
"If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would. ... Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting." Now although he didn't state anything about fishing it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that fishing wouldn't be far behind hunting. Now lets just say that these anti-hunters get their way do they really understand what economic problems will follow. Do they know that recreational fishing supports a million jobs, pays $45 billion in wages and has an overall economic impact of $125 billion in the United States annually. I can't even imagine what would happen if our economy took another hit. No here are just some interesting numbers to show just how important the fishing community is to the economy.
-Fishing is more popular than golf and tennis combined in the United States
-If the fishing industry was a national corporation, it would rank number 47 on the Fortune 500 list of companies
-Sport fishing supports more than a million jobs, three times the number of employees hired by United Parcel Service
-Research by the National Sporting Goods Association ranks fishing sixth out of 42 recreational activities surveyed

The Sport of Hunting Might Soon Fall With the Economy

Throughout the last few months I have personally noticed that the time and money I once had for hunting has began to dwindle. And now the idea of hunting as a "rich-mans sport" may very well become a harsh reality. To some people this may not seem like a big deal but to me hunting is a way of life. Some of the things that have changed the cost of hunting is due to the land owners. It was only a few years ago when I was able to just make a phone call and inform someone that I was going to be hunting on their land and that was all there was to it. But recently things have changed due to the downward slope of the economy, which has caused the land owners to now have to lease out their land for hunting and to cattle farmers or charge trespassing fees just to help pay for the taxes on their land of for the maintenance of it. Personally I understand where they are coming from and I would probably do the same but the bad thing is that other people might not understand which could cause a whole heap of problems. One huge problem is that poaching might increase like it did during the depression. Although back then poaching was a problem due to people needing the food to feed their families, now it might be due to hunters not having the right to hunt in the places they used to.
So what chance does the sport of hunting have up against an economy that doesn't look like it is getting better and time soon? Well from my point of view I believe avid hunters like myself will continue to do what we love even it is only once or twice a week verses 4-5 times a week. Although people will still find it harder to justify the time and money to go hunting we just have to keep in mind historically the most significant upswing in recreational hunting didn't take place until the country was in an economic upswing which followed WWII. So lets just hope that history repeats itself and that it repeats itself rather soon.