HUSH STATEMENT TO PA GAME COMMISSION APRIL 2023

Hunters United For Sunday Hunting    

huntersforsundayhunting@gmail.com

717-350-6741

            

Statement to Pennsylvania Game Commissioners, April 15, 2023, Public Meeting

Executive Director Burhans, Commission President Mitrick, Vice President Schnepp-Giger, District Commissioners, and Staff:

As the executive director of Hunters United for Sunday Hunting thanks for the opportunity to submit this letter as part of the Pennsylvania Game Commission April 2023 public meeting.  

As Pa. Game Commissioners you and your agency have a very tough job.  The mission of managing and protecting wildlife and their habitats while promoting hunting and trapping for current and future generations. You have to balance as much opportunity as the wildlife resource can support while also looking to the future of the species and the sport of hunting. 

Hunters United for Sunday Hunting would like to recognize the nine of you for what you and the agency have and are doing for the future of hunters and the Commonwealth as a whole.   It is because of the decisions, dedication, commitment, and fortitude you have as commissioners that the outdoor industry including hunting, shooting, and trapping added more value to our commonwealth’s gross domestic product than all of Pennsylvania’s farms, all of Pennsylvania’s oil and gas wells, and even all of Pennsylvania’s lawyers as recently reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, United States Department of Commerce. 

As commissioners, your support and efforts to bring more hunting opportunities not only on Sunday but all days of the week are positively affecting the state economically and with hunter participation.   The 21st-century lifestyle is very busy.  Businesses are no longer closed on Sunday as they once were under the blue law.  All forms of recreation are allowed on Sunday; camping, fishing, all-terrain vehicle riding, horseback riding, canoeing, hiking, etc. There has been nothing lost by having Saturdays and Sundays available for hunting.  Just as with any other activity or daily function in people's lives, if they don't like it, they don't have to participate regardless of the day of the week.

As Abraham Lincoln said; “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

Please stand firm to the agency's mission as the work continues to get Senate Bill 67 through the legislative process and into law for the full regulatory authority to set seasons and bag limits that include Sunday.

Sincerely;

 

Kevin B. Askew

Executive Director, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

NO DAMPER ON ENJOYMENT OF OUTDOORS

Submitted, not printed in response to: York Dispatch, May 31, 2019 OP-ED: Sunday hunting wouldn't be the economic boon proponents suggest

Mr. Wayne Campbell, Pennsylvania State Grange,

Thank you for the economic information involving outdoor activities nationwide.  These statistics are extremely telling of how all users of the outdoors interact through the money they spend on the sport they enjoy.  There is a definite financial benefit that can’t be denied. All across the nation, in all 50 states, people are enjoying their time outside.   If they weren’t they would not be spending this type of money. 

It is refreshing to see and know that boaters, fishermen, fisherwomen, campers, hikers, bikers, hunters, wildlife watchers, outdoor outfitters, the trail sports of motorcyclists, ATV riders, horseback riders, and all others are all coexisting all days of the week in the pursuit of what they enjoy and spending money doing it.  This for some reason is something that people do not understand. 

But, these verifiable economic figures proves just that. There is no damper on the enjoyment of the outdoors.  Regardless of the activity people are willingly spending money and are taking to the outdoors without fear, concern or regard to what others are doing while sharing the great resource of nature our country provides. 

Thanks for making these figures available and clearing showing the $30.8 billion seven day-a-week monetary benefit of everyone recreating as they wish.  One can only hope that the Pa. Legislature will fast track lifting the Sunday hunting blue law with the national financial information provided by the Pennsylvania State Grange all the while knowing that 47 other states don’t discriminate when it comes to outdoor users.

Again, thanks Wayne Campbell and Pa. State Grange for your contribution in this effort to get this archaic law lifted. 

Kevin Askew, Executive Director, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting 

PA FARM BUREAUS OPPOSITION COST STATE $500 MILLION IN TAX REVENUE

Joel Rotz, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Government Affairs and Communications spokesman, in comments made to the York Dispatch, encouraged [Pa.] hunters to maximize their economic contributions on Sundays by ‘eating and drinking at bars and restaurants in their communities.’ 

This suggestion is truly offensive to sportsmen and sportswomen across the commonwealth and it makes a person wonder if Mr. Rotz and the Pa. Farm Bureau is in touch with the modern-day hunter and conservationist.  Instead of degrading hunters, wouldn’t it be better for the PFB to understand current hunting culture and stand with countless passionate hunters and conservationists disinterested in spending our Sundays in bars? 

The residents of Pennsylvania deserve to understand the loss to the economy, tax revenue, and wages that the PFB has continued to perpetuate in the state of Pennsylvania year-after-year.

A 2010 study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Legislative Budget and Finance Committee and completed by Southwick Associates, looked at the potential impact of Sunday hunting on our state [Pa.] and local economies. The study forecast a 27 percent increase in overall hunting activity along with a net increase in retail sales of associated merchandise of over $460 million dollars per year if Sunday hunting were allowed. Considering multiplier effects, the total output to the economy would be over $800 million dollars per year. This equated to over $56 million in state and local tax revenue that has not been realized by local communities because of the PFB current stance on Sunday hunting.

Interestingly this study was calculated using hunting license numbers for the fiscal year 2009-2010, which happened to be in the top three for lowest hunting license sales since 1990, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Another study completed by John Dunham and Associates in 2018 for The National Shooting Sports Foundation lists total economic output at over $972 million. This would have put state [Pa.] and local tax opportunity at $68 million per year.

This data begs the following: What would the total economic impact have been if Pa. allowed Sunday hunting years ago? What would our participation numbers currently look like had we not limited hunters from enjoying their recreation? The results of these missed opportunities are staggering with over $500 million in state and local tax revenues forgone in the last nine years alone. Should this trend continue we will quickly reach $1 billion in lost tax revenue from increased hunting opportunities.

These numbers are far too large to be ignored by the Pennsylvania legislature.  Pa. House of Representatives, Pa. Senators and specifically both Appropriations Committees need to take a hard look at the data and get on with removing this 337-year-old archaic and discriminatory law that continues to cost Pa. hunters and the commonwealth as a whole.

The time has come for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau to view hunters as partners in conservation and wildlife management and to stop their discriminatory policy recommendations, which are detrimental to conservation and our economy.

Written by: Carl Machamer, Research Analyst, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

Southwick Study:

http://sundayhunting.org/PDF/PASundayHuntingSouthwickRpt.pdf

NSSF Study: https://d3aya7xwz8momx.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Sunday-Hunting-PA.pdf