Houston -

State doesn't misuse funds from license sales to hunters, anglers

Texas huntes and anglers begin a pair of annual rituals Monday ­­- purchasing new hunting/fishing licenses and grumbling about how the state "steals" part of that license revenue.

There's no way around the first part of the ritual; all current Texas hunting licenses and most fishing licenses expire Aug. 31, and new 2011-12 licenses, which become available for purchase Monday, are required on Sept. 1.

But that second ritual is a bit of misguided, or at least misdirected, animosity arising from the license-buying public's understandable misunderstanding of the Byzantine budget maneuvers the Texas Legislature uses to produce its constitutionally mandated balanced budget.

The common belief is that part of the approximately $90 million Texas hunters and anglers pay annually for the more than 2 million licenses is siphoned out of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department coffers and used to finance unrelated state programs. This is a persistent myth.

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