Heating up on new fees

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by meaux fishing

So youre saying you want to charge people from out of state more, and make them pay a launch fee when residents dont? who will collect this fee? Will the money generated from this fee be able to pay their salary? Lets discourage people from out of state from coming over, buying gas, eating at restaurants, buying fishing tackle, etc...

No, I am saying that if the in-state license fee is raised by 136%, the the out of state saltwater fee should be increased by a similar percentage. Collecting launch fees is silly because you spend so much to collect the fee, and if you just leave a box and use an honor system, people don't pay.

I was just making the point that higher (fishing and hunting) license fees make sense for out of staters because they do not pay Louisiana income taxes or property taxes, nor do they have to register their vehicles in Louisiana. My understanding on the E. Side, you will pay to launch at the private marinas (Rigolets, Bridgeside, Bobby Lynns, etc.), but that the boat ramps owned by the public (state, parish, or city) are all still free on the E side (Williams and Bonnabel on Lake P., Port Fourchon, Oakridge, etc.) just as they are free on the W side (Calc. Pt., Jetties, ICWW, etc.)

Of course, with the cost of fuel, it just makes sense to go ahead and pay $5-$10 to pay to launch at a private ramp if it is much closer to your fishing areas.

Here's a long list of ramps in Lafourche and Terrebonne. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all the public launches are free, and there are a lot of them. I think you have to go a bit further east (Orleans, St. Tammany) before you really have trouble finding free (public) launches.

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20...NG03/901290951