Gun sales bring windfall for DNR
A bump in gun sales partly based on the fear that restrictions could be placed on firearm ownership translated into a $3.4 million jump in federal excise taxes flowing into the S.C. Department of Natural Resources’ coffers in 2014.
EXCISE TAXES ON THE RISE
The excise tax revenue sent by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources for gun and ammunition sales has been on the rise, with an especially large bump this year.
Year Excise tax revenue
2007 $3,641,405
2008 $3,953,176
2009 $4,459,346
2010 $6,351,738
2011 $5,260,829
2012 $5,327,609
2013 $6,696,063
2014 $10,172,083
The so-called Obama bump is great news for the agency’s wildlife management projects, but it does create some challenges. To use the windfall, the agency must come up with a 25 percent match – about $1.1 million more than last year – and come up with projects suited for one-time money.
“It’s a huge bump and I’m not going to cry about it, but I worry how we’re going to come up with the match,” said agency director Alvin Taylor. “And this money isn’t flexible. We can’t use it for just anything.”
Taylor already is preparing for budget talks in the Legislature, where he will make the point the excise tax windfall shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to cut state funding of the agency. Federal law requires that the excise tax funds can be used only for wildlife management and hunter education. Taylor hopes to aim most of the wildlife management funds to projects that have been put off for years, such as repairing dikes in the duck-hunting areas at the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area in the Lowcountry.
Taylor can’t use it to bolster the agency’s law enforcement staffing, which took a huge hit during the Great Recession and only recently has begun to rebound. In fact, he doesn’t plan to use it for personnel of any kind because the budget boost is likely to be short-lived.
The excise tax paid on guns, ammunition and archery equipment has been collected since 1937 to help pay for fish and wildlife programs. Last year, the tax raised $760.9 million nationwide, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Each state gets a portion of the revenue based on its size and the number of hunting licenses sold.
The total distributions nationwide went up more than $250 million in 2014. A small part of that increase can be attributed to money not distributed during government sequestration in 2013. But most of the boost came from increased sales of guns and ammunition.
When the Obama administration floated the concept of a national gun registry and increased background checks for gun purchases after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, many gun-rights advocates raised concerns a registry would lead to taking away guns.
Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, said “this so-called universal background check… is aimed at one thing: It’s aimed at registering your guns. And when another tragic opportunity presents itself, that registry will be used to confiscate your guns.”
While some of the increase in sales, and in excise taxes collected, can be attributed to the improved economy, it’s hard to argue much of the increase is related to a rise in hunting. The excise tax revenue jumped nearly 50 percent, but hunting license sales went up only slightly.
In South Carolina, the number of license holders went from 204,837 in 2012 to 206,397 in 2013, which would be the license year that corresponds to the excise tax increase. The smaller increase in hunting license revenue makes budgeting difficult because hunting license revenue has been used in the past to raise the 25 percent state match required to get the excise tax funds.
At the S.C. natural resources agency, the annual excise tax revenue grew from $3.6 million in 2007 to $6.7 million in 2013, continuing a steady long-term climb over the past few decades, before jumping to $10.1 million in 2014.
In its budget plans, the agency plans to spend about 70 percent of the funds on wildlife management efforts and about 30 percent on hunter education projects.
“With such a big jump, you know it’s not going to stay up there,” Taylor said. “It’s going to go back down. We desperately need personnel. We can’t use this money for that, but we can certainly use it for maintenance.”
The excise tax revenue might not go down next year as much as Taylor fears. Nationally, sales of guns and ammunition have trended down this year, according to Adam Ruonala, chief marketing officer for Palmetto State Armory, which has four stores in South Carolina. But sales at Palmetto State Armory have been up, as an increased emphasis on hunting firearms has more than offset the drop in tactical weapons such as AR-10 and AR-15 rifles.
“We’ve leaned much more heavily on hunting this year,” Ruonala said.
As a hunter himself, Ruonala hopes the natural resource agency will spend the extra money on improving public hunting areas. “They’re getting new hunters, and they need to keep the facilities up to date and efficient,” he said.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/22/3...#storylink=cpy
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