Financial Returns To Industry From The Federal Aid - Wildlife and ...

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President Truman to veto the first Sport Fish Restoration bill because of it. This provision now mandates Congress to allocate the funds collected from the excise tax to the Wildlife Restoration Program. It would take another act of Congress and agreement by the President to redirect these funds for something other than supporting wildlife conservation. In addition, the provision that all funds must “remain available until expended” also is a rarity in a political system that is well known for budget maneuvering by the powers of the day. Another uniquely significant provision of the Wildlife Restoration Program is a condition that requires states to enact a prohibition against the diversion of the license fees paid by anglers and hunters for any purpose other than the administration of state fish and game departments. Prior to enactment of this federal legislation, license dollars from sportsmen were often viewed by state governments as simply another source of general fund revenue to build roads, schools, prisons etc. Because of this provision, the Wildlife Restoration Act protects hunters‟ dollars that likely would not be applied to enhancing wildlife populations. Over the years this provision has paid huge dividends; in every year the amount of funding made available through hunter licenses outstrips the funds made available through Wildlife Restoration Program funds. In 2010 this provision ensured that $776,886,267 in hunting license revenue went toward state wildlife conservation efforts 1 . These funds were matched by $472,719,710 from the Wildlife Restoration tax 2 .As a result, industry‟s investment is more than doubled even before the funding hits the ground. Methods, Definitions and Contents Developing a standard Return-On-Investment (ROI) relationship for a program where money flows between private industry, the federal government, more than 50 state/territorial governments, hunters, and back to industry is very complex. Different accounting systems at each level complicate calculations. Furthermore, both Wildlife Restoration program requires that states contribute additional funds to match the industry‟s contribution into specific projects. While the minimum “standard” match is 25%, most projects utilize the Wildlife Restoration funds as core funding that is often leveraged with additional funds. States commonly build significantly greater project budgets by leveraging other state, federal, and private funding sources. Despite this, the Wildlife Restoration funds are often irreplaceable catalysts for these projects, even though the final contribution to the budget may be only a fraction of the total project costs. In addition, calculations are complicated because of inherent time lags between the time a product is manufactured, the time of first sale and tax collection, the time when the tax 1 Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, license certification for 2010. 2 Source; Final apportionment figures from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program.
is appropriated to the state agencies, when the funds are budgeted for a project, and when a project is fully implemented. As a result, it can be years between the manufacture of a product and the implementation of a new conservation project. Perhaps most importantly, investments into conservation projects are often long-term investments and difficult to assess. Rebuilding depleted wildlife populations or conducting comprehensive habitat improvements can take years or decades to pay dividends in the form of improved wildlife populations and increased hunting activity which generates sales of products. Despite these complexities, a multi-tiered approach has been developed to assess returns to industry. This approach relies on several levels of data analysis: A macro-level analysis of the growth of the hunting and shooting-sports industries since the initiation of the Wildlife Restoration Programs. A fine-scale review of selected case studies (specific projects) that have utilized Wildlife Restoration funding. A vision of the implications to hunting in the absence of the Wildlife Restoration Program. Although the benefits of a project may be a result of investments from a variety of funding sources, it is assumed in each case that the Wildlife Restoration funding was vital to the conduct of the projects. Estimating Return On Investment The “return on investment measure” compares net benefits from the investment to the costs of the investment. The metric is very flexible and can be modified by adjusting the definition of benefits and costs. This approach applies the measure at two scales. The smaller scale, which is the return to the tax-paying companies from their investment of the excise tax, is represented by the following equation: Excise-Tax-Related ROI = [(Wholesale adjusted spending by hunters on tax-related equipment items) - (Excise-tax-related investments)] / (Excise-tax-related investments). The benefit to industry is defined as the retail on tax-related equipment items by hunters and shooting sports enthusiasts, adjusted to account for the amount of each sale passed from retailers and wholesalers to manufacturers who pay the tax. An average mark-up of 30 percent is assumed. 3 Investments are defined as the amount of excise tax collected (macro analysis) or invested into a specific project (micro analysis). An Excise Tax-Related ROI is estimated for the nation as whole and for each individual case study. 3 National Sports Shooting Foundation: Annual Retail Survey. Southwick Associates. 2009. 5
Page 1 and 2: Financial Returns to Industry from
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements This document was
Page 5 and 6: more than 123 days - more than a 4,
Page 7 and 8: The investments made in conserving
Page 9: Appendix B: Hunting Recreation Purc
Page 12 and 13: success. These include, among other
Page 16 and 17: The larger scale ROI is the return
Page 18 and 19: additional matching contributions a
Page 20 and 21: urden and see that our thoughtlessn
Page 22 and 23: Figure 1. Average Annual Contributi
Page 24 and 25: Figure 3. Recreational Hunters in t
Page 26 and 27: Returns on Investment During the pe
Page 28 and 29: estimated to be between $3.09 billi
Page 30 and 31: license dollars would eventually be
Page 32 and 33: days were calculated by adding the
Page 34 and 35: Figure 8. National Growth in Elk Hu
Page 36 and 37: Here are a few more examples compar
Page 38 and 39: Table 2 reflects current hunting op
Page 40 and 41: SYNOPSIS (1990-2008) Project Type C
Page 42 and 43: Table 3. North Carolina Wild Turkey
Page 44 and 45: effort. States annually contributed
Page 46 and 47: Figure 13. Estimated Hunter effort
Page 48 and 49: towards smaller amounts. The succes
Page 50 and 51: 883%. The net return on tax related
Page 52 and 53: tags. Two scenarios were developed
Page 54 and 55: Acres Landowners applied to Block M
Page 56 and 57: In light of the fact that this retu
Page 58 and 59: the state meeting a population-driv
Page 60 and 61: More importantly, hunter-education
Page 62 and 63: members into hunting or shooting sp
Page 64 and 65:
Table 10. Brown County Shooting Ran
Page 66 and 67:
The range has seen over 2,200 user
Page 68 and 69:
Number of Target Shooter Days Figur
Page 70 and 71:
These are the basic questions that
Page 72 and 73:
As a result of the suit, the FWS re
Page 74 and 75:
Case #13: Wisconsin Bear-Population
Page 76 and 77:
Table 14. Return on Investment: Wis
Page 78 and 79:
During that same time frame, bear a
Page 80 and 81:
Conclusion The abundance of wildlif
Page 82 and 83:
APPENDICES Appendix A: Taxable Equi
Page 84 and 85:
Arrow holders (all items to be affi
Page 86 and 87:
Appendix C: Macro-level Purchase Es
Page 88 and 89:
Table C2. Annual Purchases, Collect
Page 90 and 91:
Appendix E: Growth in Hunting Oppor
Page 92 and 93:
Figure E4. National Growth in Rabbi
Page 94 and 95:
Table F1. (cont’d) Deer Elk Bear
Page 96:
Table F1. (cont’d) Quail Grouse T
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