Update R.I. Saltwater Fishing License

[Jim Mckeough]

The Sunday meeting of the Weekapaug Surfcaster was attended by
Rep. Blake Filippi. Rep. Filippi stated that he is not trying to do away with the Saltwater Fishing License and go to a Federal License.

Rep. Filippi ideas are as follows:

The R.I. Saltwater Fishing License costs $7.00.
Broken down as follows $3.00 for administrative costs $4.00 which
goes into the Saltwater Special Fund and is matched approx. 3 to1 by the Federal Government.
Rep. Filippi wants to change the cost of the Saltwater Fishing License
to $3.00 to cover administrative costs ONLY and do away with the $4.00 which goes into the Special Fund. ( By doing this we would lose all Federal matching money. ) I asked him if the State would include the money we are going to lose in the State Budget.
Of course the answer was no. Whats going to happen to all the money in the special fund now???????
His reasoning is the Federal Government is interfering to much in State politics. Every person at the meeting told him that he was way off base. He still thinks he is right.



Note to John, I tried to write this the best I could from my notes.
If you do not think it is proper to post this or if you want to change it in any way it is all right with me.