Bill: HB 3649, 84(R) - 2015

Committee

House Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Vote Recommendation

Vote Recommendation Economic Freedom Property Rights Personal Responsibility Limited Government Individual Liberty
Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral

Author(s)

Wayne Smith

Bill Caption

Relating to a lifetime hunting license for certain nonresidents; authorizing a fee.

Fiscal Notes

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB 3649, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.

 

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.

Bill Analysis

HB 3649 would amend the Parks and Wildlife Code by allowing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to issue lifetime hunting licenses to nonresident landowners. 

This legislation would allow a nonresident landowner to purchase a lifetime hunting license if a person is related to the landowner by the first degree of consanguinity.  Additionally, that person who is related to the nonresident landowner must have owned property in Texas for at least 15 years. 

Lastly, this legislation would give the Parks and Wildlife Commission the authority to revoke a nonresident landowner’s lifetime hunting license if he or she no longer owns property in Texas. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

Currently, only Texas residents may purchase a lifetime hunting license. While we are in support of this bill allowing a nonresident landowner to obtain a lifetime hunting license, we are puzzled that it adds arbitrary requirements that are unnecessarily burdensome. If a nonresident owns property in this state he or she should not have to prove any familial relation to a resident.  Moreover, it is unnecessary that a nonresident must own property before they can purchase a lifetime hunting license.

On the one hand this benefits nonresident Texas landowners which would be a good thing but it does so in a very convoluted way. A better approach would be to simply allow anyone who wants to buy a lifetime hunting license to do so regardless of their state of residency. For these reasons we are neutral on this bill.


Source URL (retrieved on 03/28/2024 05:03 AM): http://reports.texasaction.com/bill/84r/hb3649?print_view=true