Sen. Rob Stafsholt

On Wednesday, the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released a report summarizing its audit of the DNR Fish and Wildlife Account. The report found that, in FY 2023-24, Fish and Wildlife Account expenditures totaled $126.2 million, with $92.9 million of those expenditures being supported by state revenue. Of the expenditures supported by state revenue, 49.8 percent primarily benefited sportsmen in Wisconsin, 39.5 percent had at least some benefit to sportsmen, and the remaining 10.7 percent went towards administrative costs or activities with no benefit to sportsmen. Sen. Rob Stafsholt (R – New Richmond) has long been concerned over the management of the Account. He publicly requested the audit last July to better understand how the Department was spending the revenue from license and stamp fees being paid by Wisconsin’s sportsmen.

“After more than a year since my request for this audit, I appreciate that Wisconsin’s hunters, anglers, and trappers finally have some insight into how their money is being spent,” stated Stafsholt upon the release of the LAB report. “I am concerned, however, by the fact that only around half of the expenditures by Fish and Wildlife are being put towards activities that ‘primarily’ benefit Wisconsin’s sportsmen. Another 40 percent of the expenditures have at least ‘some’ benefit to the people of our state who buy hunting and fishing licenses. However, it is my opinion that we should be closer to 90 percent of the Account being devoted to expenditures that ‘primarily’ benefit the sportsmen who pay these fees.”

The Audit of the Fish and Wildlife Account was necessary not just for understanding the Account’s expenditures, but also because the Account has been operating under significant structural deficits. Without a one-time transfer from the Forestry Account, the Fish and Wildlife Account would have been in the hole by just over $10 million in FY 2023-24. The structural deficit persisted into this year, with yet another one-time transfer from the Forestry Account being required during the state budget process in order to keep the Account afloat.

As an alternative strategy to address the Account’s deficits, Gov. Evers’ 2025-27 budget proposal had penciled in staggering increases to hunting, fishing, and trapping license fees. While the plan was ultimately nixed by the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee, hunters and anglers across the state were caught off guard by the proposed hikes, which nearly doubled fees in some cases. “I am glad that, as part of my work on Joint Finance, we were able to cancel the license and stamp fee increases, especially now that we know that half of these fees paid by our sportsmen are subsidizing costs of the Department that don’t primarily come back to benefit them,” said Stafsholt.

Although the fee increases were avoided for the next two years, the budgeting issues within the Fish and Wildlife Account remain. In its response to the LAB report’s release, the DNR took the opportunity to continue to press for future fee increases, stating that “20 years without an update to hunting, fishing, and trapping license fees is unprecedented.” In response and conclusion, Stafsholt stated, “This report backs up my stance that fee increases were a premature approach to balancing the Fish and Wildlife Account. Better fiscal management may be the solution. The one bright side of the fact that half of the Account expenditures aren’t primarily benefiting our sportsmen is the fact that the DNR has plenty of room to make cuts to those nonrevenue-generating activities and programs to balance the books. We could also look to raise revenue for the Account from other users of our state’s natural resources who currently benefit from Fish and Wildlife’s expenditures but don’t currently pay fees to support these programs.”

Sen. Stafsholt represents Wisconsin’s 10^th Senate District, which includes all of Buffalo, Pepin, Pierce, and St. Croix counties, as well as portions of Dunn and Trempealeau counties.