UPDATE/Ohio Division of Wildlife writes Fiscal 2019 in red link, likely to repeat in 2020

Officials with the Ohio Division of Wildlife believe the agency’s finances are “okay” though “not great.”

This, in spite of the fact the Wildlife Division had expenditures that exceeded revenues. In Fiscal Year 2019 the agency saw an $8.4 million red-ink gap between what went out money-wise and what came in.

And Fiscal 2020 is likely to see a negative disparity between expenses and income, Wildlife Division officials say as well.

For Fiscal 2019 – and as seen as part of an informative section in the Wildlife Division’s annual calendar – expenditures totaled nearly $81 million. Meanwhile, income totaled some $72.6 million.

A more specific breakdown of where the money came from and where it was spent is summarized into two accompanying pie charts.

The last time the Wildlife Division took in more money than it received was Fiscal 2018.

Still, the Wildlife Division does encounter years where more goes out for projects, services and such than it takes in as receipts from the sale of licenses, fees associated with special taxes, and monies generated from federal aid dollars.

“I think we’re doing okay but I wouldn’t put it as great,” said Todd Haines, a Wildlife Division assistant chief. “We’re holding our own.”

Speaking to specifics was Kelley Moseley, the agency’s administrator charged with handling the agency’s books, along with Brian Banbury, the head of the Wildlife Division’s information and education section.

Moseley noted, for instance, how in Fiscal 2019 the Wildlife Division undertook some large expenses. Among them being a land purchase in Hardin County.

Much work remains at revamping and rehabilitating the agency’s popular Spring Valley shooting range and the one at the Delaware Wildlife Area, too; each of which have been in dire need of upgrades and maintenance.

Likewise, such ranges will remain a priority for the agency with eventual improvements in mind for the one located at the Grand River Wildlife Area in Trumbull County, both Haines and Moselely say.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Moseley said. “Our goal is to make these ranges as safe as possible.”

An area where the Wildlife Division is legally bound to spend large sums money is employee wages and the accompanying fringe benefits. Lumped under the pie chart banners of “Wildlife Management,” “Fish Management,” and “Wildlife Officers,” these expenses are demands that can be controlled but are difficult to contain.

One method is to reduce the number of employees, which Haines says the agency has done. The Wildlife Division has shrunk its full-time workforce from 425 employees five years ago to 380 now, Haines said.

As for land acquisition, this line item will always be a feature, the three agency officials say.

However, the purchase of up to 60,000 acres in four southeast Ohio is a fiscal expenditure that won’t show up in the Wildlife Division’s standard pie chart calendar feature. This property assignment is eagerly being worked on by the Wildlife Division, and represents something unique for the agency and likely will be seen under a different reporting format, Haines said.

“This is the first time we’ve received (General Revenue Fund) money from the legislature,” he said.

Speaking of revenue, those arriving dollars and cents are often difficult to peg. Such unknowns includes calculating how much additional revenue can be expected as the result of the fee increases for certain types of fishing and hunting licenses.

“(Fiscal) 2020 will be the first full year those dollars will be showing up, and we’ll see how much,” Moseley said.

Moseley did say an area of income that is out of range of the Wildlife Division to exercise revenue enhancement is the all-important “Federal Aid” dollars. In the Wildlife Division’s Fiscal Year 2019 pie chart this slice was the largest, beating out income derived from either the sale of fishing or hunting licenses.

In fact, this $23.8 million federal aid ledger notation was nearly equal to combining the receipts of both hunting and fishing license sales.

The thing is, Moseley says, so goes the sale of fishing tackle, firearms, ammunition, and archery tackle so goes federal aid money. That is because a federal excise tax on these products fuels the government’said-in-restoration for fish and wildlife projects is apportioned to the states for approved projects and activities.

Thus with fewer firearms and ammunition being sold, the Wildlife Division anticipates seeing a drop in revenues from this source, says Moseley.

Holding its own is the amount of money the Wildlife Division gets from the collection of a certain portion of the state’s motor fuel tax. This allowance was the Ohio legislature’s acknowledgment how the state’s anglers and boaters buy fuel, too. Consequently, the programs which benefit these end-users should see some of the state’s motor fuel tax money.

In Fiscal 2019 the Wildlife Division was the recipient of nearly $2.4 million in state gasoline sales tax receipts.

In the end, the officials say, the Wildlife Division is tasked not only with minding fish and game resources but also husbanding the dollars and cents that pay for these items.

“It’s just like operating a company,” Moseley said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com