Fishing license debate ahead

BY BRAD RICH

CARTERET NEWS-TIMES
Morehead City, NC

July 15, 2005

RALEIGH State Rep. Jean Preston, R-Carteret, pledged Thursday to continue to try to improve or defeat what she considers badly flawed legislation to amend the not-yet-enacted saltwater recreational fishing license approved by the General Assembly last year.

But Rep. Preston was not named to the conference committee set up this week to resolve differences in license amendment bills already adopted this summer by the state House and Senate, and conceded that the makeup of that panel will make it difficult for her or other like-minded lawmakers to influence the outcome.

The Senate chair of the committee, she said, is Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, the author of the Senate version of the bill, and the other Senate appointees are Scott Thomas, a Democrat from New Bern who represents Carteret County; Harry Brown, a Republican who represents Jones and Onslow counties; Robert Holloman, a Democrat from the northeastern corner of the state; A.B. Swindell, a Democrat who represents Nash and Wilson counties; Clark Jenkins, a Democrat who represents Edgecombe, Martin and Pitt counties; and David Weinstein, who represents Hoke and Robeson counties.

The House chair, Rep. Preston said, is Pryor Gibson, the powerful Union County Democrat who "ran the bill" in the House. Other House members are Danny McComas, a Republican from New Hanover County; Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County Republican who has introduced several bills that have upset commercial fishermen; William Wainright, D-Craven County; Paul Stam, R-Caldwell County; Pricey Harrison, a Democrat and former Beaufort resident who represents Guilford County; and Joe Hackney, a Democrat who represents Chatham, Moore and Orange counties.

The task of the committee is to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, and although some of those differences are huge, Rep. Preston said she expects the panel to complete that task and present Gov. Mike Easley an amended bill to sign.

The need for the committee arose this week when the Senate voted 48-0 Tuesday not to accept the House version of the bill, which won the latter chamber’s approval by a 73-34 margin, with Rep. Preston in the minority. The Senate had adopted its own bill earlier in the session.

Revenues from the new license expected to reach $19.4 million or more the first year are to be earmarked for grants to improve coastal fish stocks and other marine resources.

Last year’s last-minute bill, approved late at night, would require the license system to take effect in January 2006. The Senate amendment approved in April would start the system in March 2006, while the new House version wouldn’t make the license available until January 2007.

The coastal license would be $15 a year for residents and $5 for short-term permits. The new unified permit would cost $35 and would increase to $55 if the permit applicant also wanted to hunt.

The bill also establishes blanket licenses for charter boats and other large vessels from $300 to $400. Pier operators would pay $4 per foot.

While many recreational fishermen support the license, which the state fisheries division has pushed hard because it would generate data officials say is needed to better manage fish stocks, many if not most commercial fishermen oppose it, contending it will increase the power of the recreational fishing industry at the expense of the struggling commercial industry.

Some on both sides of the fishing industry divide, like some on both sides of the political aisle in the General Assembly, consider the license to be little more than a tax, a position Rep. Preston feels is more or less accurate.

"The first two or three years I was in the General Assembly, I’d make it a point during the fishing season to go out on the beach in Atlantic Beach, Indian Beach/Salter Path and Emerald Isle to talk to people," she said. "I’d encounter people carrying buckets and fishing polls, and I’d approach them and introduce myself and ask ... how they felt about paying $15 so they could fish. You wouldn’t believe the reactions and responses I got.

"Most of the people, what they said was something like, ‘You people up in the legislature, all you want to do is raise more money so you can spend more,’" Rep. Preston said. "All you want is another tax."

She also derided the Senate bill for charging $1 to people who want to fish from their own property.

"That just doesn’t make any sense," she said. "Why do you want to charge someone a dollar to walk out his back door and throw a line in the water? And if you are going to make that person get a license, why $1?"

But, Rep. Preston added, the conference committee, which almost surely will not even hold a formal meeting, is comprised primarily of strong supporters of one of the two bills approved this session. It’s not likely those members, who no doubt will be prodded by legislative leaders like Rep. Gibson and Sen. Albertson, will emerge without something for the governor to sign.

In fact, several sources told the newspaper this week, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the conference committee never actually meets at all. Generally, one of the sources said, the conference committee chairmen discuss the two bills in private, come up with a compromise with some input from others, then take the compromise around for approval by the other conference committee members.

"It’s a good committee, with both old blood and new blood and several people who are very knowledgeable," Rep. Preston said. "I have talked to Rep. Gibson about the bill quite a bit; we’re friends. But most of the people on the committee are in favor of the license."

State Sen. Thomas told the newspaper earlier this week that he, too, is confident the compromise will be reached and the governor will sign an amended bill this summer.

Sen. Thomas indicated Tuesday he thought it would take some "convincing" by House members to get the Senate to change its opinion on where the money should go.

"The reason the (WRC) was brought in was we didn’t think we needed to reinvent the wheel, that the wildlife commission already issued freshwater fishing licenses and hunting licences, and we thought it would be more efficient economically to do it that way," Sen. Thomas said. "There was also the fact that someone could go to one place and get all the licenses they might want.

"From that came the idea of the proceeds going through the wildlife commission," the senator continued. "But I don’t think there has ever been an intent for the money from the license to be co-mingled with the other wildlife money."

Although Pres Pate, director of the state fisheries division, has said he would much prefer for the MFC to administer the license and the revenue from it, Sen. Thomas on Tuesday said only that the Senate would "look at" that idea seriously.

"I think we’d need to reach a certain comfort level that the fisheries commission would administer the program and the money for the benefit of all of the fishermen, commercial and recreational," he said.

He also said he was a little concerned that the House bill would increase the size of the fisheries commission from nine members to 14.

Both of those provisions, plus a House bill provision that would give state fisheries law enforcement officers authority in federal waters from three to 200 miles offshore in the ocean, concern Rep. Preston. The "federalization" of the law enforcement arm of the fisheries division is particular worrisome, she said, because of the harshness of some federal statutes and judges.

But the whole license, she said, will cause undue problems for many people.

"At least at first, a lot of people won’t even know they have to have a license to fish here because they never have before," she said. "Some of them will get tickets, and of course, as we all know happens pretty often, a judge will throw it out. But those people will still have to go to a lot of trouble."