Nonresidents Can’t Carry Wisconsin’s License Burden for Us

   What do Wisconsin hunters and anglers love to hate most: wolves, carp or nonresident competition?

   The choices narrow when lawmakers debate whether to raise prices for hunting and fishing licenses. Wisconsin last raised its nonresident license fees in 2023, but we haven’t had the spine to raise resident fees since 2005.

   Instead, most folks yell: “Make nonresidents pay! Stay home if you don’t like it!”

   Western states take that approach. According to a September 2024 report by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, six of our 50 states exploit nonresidents with neither guilt nor shame. Nonresidents pay over 60% of all hunting-license revenues for Idaho, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.

   The accompanying chart shows how. On average, the Western states above, plus six others — Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, North Dakota and South Dakota — charge nonresidents an average of $488.44 for a deer tag while charging their own hunters $41.47. That’s nearly 12 times more than what their residents pay. Midwestern states, meanwhile, charge nonresidents 6.4 times more for a deer license.

   Before everyone suggests Wisconsin reciprocate by charging Western states their 12-time rate, take a breath. If we stay at $24, the price we’ve paid for deer licenses the past 20 years, and jack Western hunters at their states’ predatory rates, they’ll still pay “only” $288 for our nonresident deer license because our fee is low, on average.

   At $288, they’d pay only $90 more than Wisconsin’s nonresident price, $198, and $9 less than the average nonresident price for Midwestern deer licenses, $297. Minnesota  charges nonresidents $185; Illinois, $361.75; Michigan, $190; Iowa, $644; Indiana, $240; and Ohio, $258.

Wisconsin hasn’t raised its resident hunting and fishing fees since 2005, and passing most such costs onto nonresidents isn’t as easy as some think.   — Patrick Durkin photo

   Realize, too, that of the 553,517 licenses Wisconsin sold in 2024 for gun seasons, residents bought 94% of them. And of the 34,371 licenses bought by nonresidents, hunters from the Upper Midwest bought 26,553 (77.25%) of them. Minnesota hunters bought nearly half, 17,124 (49.8%); and Illinois, 6,309 (18.3%); Michigan, 1,193 (3.5%); Iowa, 1,069 (3%); Indiana, 540 (1.6%); and Ohio, 318 (0.9%).

   Therefore, if we punish only Western hunters for the selfish rates they charge us, few will notice. Those 12 Western states mentioned earlier bought only 2,720 nonresident deer licenses in Wisconsin last year, 8% of the total, with Colorado hunters buying 747, or 27.5% of that total.

   In real dollars, Wisconsin’s resident deer hunters paid roughly $12.46 million for gun licenses in 2024, while nonresidents paid $6.8 million, or about 35.3% of deer-license revenues. And of that, Western hunters from those 12 states paid $538,560, or 3%, of our deer-license revenues.

   For nonresidents to pay 60% of Wisconsin’s gun-license revenues (roughly $11.58 million), they would have to pay about $337 each. That might sound OK to some folks, given that it’s $151 less than the average those Western states charge nonresidents to hunt deer, but shafting nonresidents isn’t part of the Upper Great Lakes’ culture.

   Why? Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota have more hunters than do most Western states. Therefore, we have more sons, daughters, fathers and cousins returning home to hunt deer each November. It’s no coincidence that the top 10 states buying nonresident Wisconsin deer licenses are Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, California and Arizona. Whether for work or retirement, lots of native Wisconsinites live in those states.

   And unlike Western states, Wisconsin can’t offer a diverse menu of big-game species to attract other nonresidents. Yes, we have lots of white-tailed deer, and we sold record numbers of nonresident bear tags last year, but that record was merely 521.

   We haven’t sought alternative funding, either. Minnesota and Missouri charge an 1/8th of a cent sales tax on all taxable goods to help pay for conservation. Further, Minnesotans must register and pay $15 annually for non-portable fish shacks (basically, any shelter that can’t be folded and stowed), and $23 every three years for canoes and kayaks over 10 feet long, as well as $10.60 for invasive-species monitoring.

   Like it or not, Wisconsin relies largely on its resident hunters and anglers to pay for our natural-resources programs. Rather than take pride in those duties and fairly shoulder the financial obligations, many Wisconsinites want others to overpay for our pleasure treasures. And even though most Wisconsin conservation groups favor fee increases, our lawmakers sneak out the back whenever room temperatures rise.

   Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s funding challenges keep increasing while the overall sales of hunting and fishing licenses decrease. Consider these examples comparing sales in 2024 with 2005, the last time Wisconsin raised license fees for residents and nonresidents:

   -- Resident gun deer, 2024: 519,146 licenses, down 14.5% from 607,591 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident gun deer, 2024: 34,371 licenses, down 1.45% from 34,878 in 2005.

   -- Resident archery and crossbow, 2024: 219,112 (101,607 archery, 117,505 crossbow), down 9.8% from 242,986 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident archery and crossbow, 2024: 15,050 (9,115 archery, 5,935 crossbow), up 86.4% from 8,072 in 2005.

   -- Resident conservation patron: 64,389 in 2024, up 46% from a low of 44,049 in 2012, but down 7.8% from 69,859 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident conservation patron: 1,077 in 2024, up 95.5% from 551 in 2005.

   -- Resident sport license (fishing, gun deer, small-game hunting): 55,566 in 2024; up 24.7% from 44,567 in 2017, but down 32% from 81,701 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident sport license (fishing, gun deer, small-game hunting): 3,979 in 2024, up 62.3% from 2,451 in 2005.

   -- Resident standard fishing license: 581,911 in 2024, down 18% from 2009 peak of 708,003; down 11% from 652,642 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident standard fishing: 85,291 in 2024, down 16% from 101,400 in 2005.

   -- Resident spring turkey: 138,361 in 2024, down 10% from 153,863 in 2005.

   -- Nonresident spring turkey: 6,959 in 2024, up 66% from 4,192 in 2005.

   Did you notice how resident license sales in those major categories generally decreased while nonresident sales increased? That trait isn’t unique to Wisconsin. Hunters and anglers travel well, with nonresidents buying with more loyalty than residents.

   Even so, Wisconsin residents still buy 15 times more gun licenses, 14.5 times more archery/crossbow licenses, 60 times more conservation patron licenses, 14 times more sport licenses, 7 times more fishing licenses, and 20 times more turkey licenses than do nonresidents.

   It might feel good to stick nonresidents with even higher fees, but it will be hard to make them buy our way out of Wisconsin's increasing financial shortfalls.