Home > Outdoors > Archives > 2008 > May > 06 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USIs this how buying a license will be?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As I stood helplessly at the “sporting goods” counter recently at a Gwinnett County Wal-Mart, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is what the future holds with the new fishing/hunting/boating licensing system the state will implement by year’s end.
My fishing license was about to expire and, with a bass-fishing trip planned to start the next day, I stopped into a Wal-Mart close to home to re-enlist. I figured I’d pick up a license, maybe some offset hooks, and be home in less than a half-hour.
Um, no.
It was nearly an hour just to get someone to turn on the cash register and key in my info. That was only after going to the front of the store three times to tell them what I wanted and that I needed help (that didn’t help) and then flagging down another store employee who eventually found someone who could help.
I was told that nobody works at the sporting goods counter for an entire shift, but instead alternates between that department and the hardware area. I found nobody in either department, by the way.
Then, I had to explain to the person helping me what trout and WMA licenses were.
I wondered, is this how buying a license will be in the new system?
The state announced the new system earlier this year, saying the decade-old current system is antiquated and falling apart, and must be replaced. Contracting with Central Bank, a Missouri data and financial firm that manages similar licensing systems in 21 other states, the state put into motion a new system that will be Internet-based and offer real-time license sales. Real-time data is important in preventing duplicate licensing and blocking sales to those who are not allowed to have a license.
Central Bank will charge an additional fee — call it a handling fee — of at least $2.75 per transaction, but more troubling may be the certainty that there will be far fewer places to walk in and buy a license. Central Bank will contract with the top 20 percent volume sellers in the state to offer in-person sales, leaving many Mom-and-Pop stores out.
Most of those in the top 20 percent are big-box stores like Wal-Mart.
The state says it’s still a work in progress with Central Bank. The exact number of retail outlets there will be once the system goes online (boating licenses by September; hunting/fishing by December) hasn’t been finalized. And, since the new system is web-based, virtually any store with the needed computer equipment may still be able to facilitate sales.
Like the current system you still will be able to purchase licenses from your home computer, which, I suppose, is where all of this is headed anyway.
But know that there will be far fewer than the 1,100 outlets which currently sell licenses in the “old” system.
More than 90 percent of Georgia hunting/fishing/boating enthusiasts buy their licenses in person, while they buy a pack of hooks, new line, or live bait. At small tackle shops, they also can talk to people who know where the fish are biting or spin a story about the guy down the road who bagged a 10-pointer.
At Wal-Mart?
Um, no.
Comments
By Bill C
May 7, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
I am not sure how it all works at Wal-Mart but there are other options. First, you can purchase a lifetime license for $500 if you are a resident (age based discount is available…and well worth it). At Bass Pro Shops you can walk in the door and pick one up at customer service in about 2 minutes and be on your way….of course if you need any fishing supplies or information that is available too.
Tight lines….<”)))><
By Jimmy Harris
May 7, 2008 8:45 AM | Link to this
As a small flyfishing retailer in rural north Georgia, I think this new system will be a disaster. We don’t have Wal-Marts and Bass Pro Shops every two or three miles up here. But beyond that, sportsmen have proclaimed for years that we were willing to pay more for hunting and fishing licenses as long as we were assured the money went directly to improve the resources. The argument we were given against raising the prices was that folks would look at it as a tax increase. Now the state decides to effectively raise the cost of all our licenses by farming it out and yet the sportsmen get absolutely no benefits from it. We sell licenses as a convenience to our customers. It is not a money-maker but rather a money-losing activity because we accept credit card payment for licenses so we’re not talking about lost revenue. The issue here is doing what’s right for the anglers, boaters and hunters. This is a bad deal for all of us.
Jimmy Harris Unicoi Outfitters
By John H
May 7, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this
Scott, what is this boating license you mention in your column?
By Eric Bruce
May 7, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
It may be “convenient” for some to buy a license on the internet or the phone, but that requires a credit card, computer, internet connnection, etc., that many sportsmen don’t have, or don’t have ready access to.
The fees are too high and should stay in state. We should have more options.
I’m thinking seriously about buying a lifetime license so I can avoid the future fees altogether.
By Scott Bernarde
May 7, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this
John H.
By using ‘boating license’ I’m referring to boat registration, no difference than before. Other than you’ll be assessed a surcharge ($8 by Internet, $10 by phone) when you register your boat in the new system.
By John H
May 7, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this
Wow! That’s quite a surcharge. However, I’m relieved to find out there’s no new “boating license” to obtain. I’ve only taken the boat out sporadically for the past few years and was afraid that I had not kept up to date on the regulations. Thanks for the update.
By Gene
May 7, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this
Walmart’s prices on tackle are good, but it is hit and miss for licenses. I was going trout fishing a few years back and had to wait for about 30 deer hunters to get their licenses. That was bad timing on my part, but there is employee apathy at times. Last year I went steelhead fishing in Ohio. I got an out of state license online from my home computer. One of our party forgot and was able to sign up from my wireless laptop with a credit card. It was extremely easy, and you did not need to print out a license—the registration number was sufficient. I would gladly pay a processing fee to avoid the usual hassles.
By Scott Bernarde
May 7, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Gene, Good point.
Going online to get a new license is easy (even in the current system) and more of us should be doing that.
But the state says more than 90 percent of license-buyers do it in person. I suppose having fewer retail outlets assures that number will decrease, but habits are hard to break. I also wonder if there will be a decrease in license sales and an increase in people hunting/fishing illegally.
By Jim H.
May 8, 2008 2:29 PM | Link to this
It doesn’t really affect me personally (except that the added service charge sucks), as I have been buying my licenses online for several years (as well as doing about 95% of my other shopping online…..my career has been in IT/computer support for many years so I understand what to do and what not to do when shopping online) —- But I can see why it is causing an uproar amongst the non tech-savy public and for those that just don’t have easy access to a computer or the internet. If they are going to do this they ought to come up with a way to include the traditional mom n’ pop stores. It seems like a simple terminal with a dial-up connection would be easy to implement —- if they were inclined to do it. With the dwindling numbers of sportsman, increasing difficulty in finding places to hunt, fewer kids coming into hunting/fishing, etc. —- we don’t need to be doing ANYTHING to make it harder to hunt and fish.
By Roosevelt's Ranger
May 18, 2008 4:32 AM | Link to this
Potentially $30,000,000 from Georgia’s sportsmen over the next 10 years simply blown to the wind.
That money could have been used to upgrade our wildlife agency’s own website, among other things.
My license is expired and I just logged on to purchase a new one and the part of the site where you do that is not functioning. It’s 4AM on Sunday morning and I’m heading out in an hour or so to take my grandson fishing at Charlie Elliott WLC. If the new program was in effect I’d have to go far out of my way to WallyWorld, a company that I despise BTW. As it is now at least when I stop by my local bait shop to purchase crickets I can get a license.
DNR has provided a list of excuses on their website trying to explain why they shafted us. They are mostly hollow words. Boil it all down and it comes to a CFO tried to win brownie points by “downsizing government”. The problem is that she did it on the backs of Georgia’s Sportsmen to the tune of $3,ooo,ooo per year.