LAST EDITED ON Dec-23-15 AT 07:50PM (MST)[p]With a shortage of expo and conservation tag threads I thought another one would be beneficial. This thread I would like to address questions that should have to be answered to by the Utah DWR and SFW and MDF. We're is all the money you should be accounting for?
The conservation permit proceeds get broken into 3 categories:
-10% retained by the organization for adminstrative costs
-30% given straight back to the DWR
-60% retained by conservation group to use on DWR approved projects
The 60% must be spent within 2 years on projects, but the 60% has not been accounted for from SFW or MDF from what I can see:
First let's look at SFW:
2013 auction tag revenues $1,083,725
60% required to be used in conservation - $650,235
Actually spent on conservation in 2014 - $397,586
That leaves $252,649 that is not accounted for that is required to be reinvested.
Now let's look at MDF:
2013 Auction tag revenue- $971,285
60% of the auction tag revenue required for conservation work - $582,771
Actually invested back into conservation-$311,897
That leaves $270,874 that is not accounted for that is required to be reinvested.
Now projects don't always get completed or approved by the end of each year and there may be a shortage of projects during a given year which could leave $10-20,000 that may be reasonable to carry over to the next year for projects, but this has been the norm. They have continually not accounted for these extra funds and there has been no year I'm aware of where an amount was spent exceeding revenue gained off the tags. At some point there should be a lot of extra spending in a given year to make up for all the money unaccounted for. There is not. All of this information is available on the DWRs conservation permit page and these numbers are troubling. Where is all the money?
The conservation permit proceeds get broken into 3 categories:
-10% retained by the organization for adminstrative costs
-30% given straight back to the DWR
-60% retained by conservation group to use on DWR approved projects
The 60% must be spent within 2 years on projects, but the 60% has not been accounted for from SFW or MDF from what I can see:
First let's look at SFW:
2013 auction tag revenues $1,083,725
60% required to be used in conservation - $650,235
Actually spent on conservation in 2014 - $397,586
That leaves $252,649 that is not accounted for that is required to be reinvested.
Now let's look at MDF:
2013 Auction tag revenue- $971,285
60% of the auction tag revenue required for conservation work - $582,771
Actually invested back into conservation-$311,897
That leaves $270,874 that is not accounted for that is required to be reinvested.
Now projects don't always get completed or approved by the end of each year and there may be a shortage of projects during a given year which could leave $10-20,000 that may be reasonable to carry over to the next year for projects, but this has been the norm. They have continually not accounted for these extra funds and there has been no year I'm aware of where an amount was spent exceeding revenue gained off the tags. At some point there should be a lot of extra spending in a given year to make up for all the money unaccounted for. There is not. All of this information is available on the DWRs conservation permit page and these numbers are troubling. Where is all the money?