His theory is very basic and what tourism economic development groups harp all of the time, it is reality. The point is that everyone has a certain amount of disposable income and if you cut non-residents tag in half then half of that money will 100% not come into Wyoming, but a good portion (75%?) of the money residents spend to hunt those same tags probably will stay in the state somehow (however you spend it, including hunting general units). You and a few others might stick it in a savings account and not spend that money as you are stating, but the majority of folks will spend their disposable income within their state on whatever they chose to (new boat, fishing road, new gun...whatever). Tourism is huge for many states and they try to bring people in to vacation in their state and this would reduce the number of non-residents coming to your state to hunt. You can argue that it is not significant in the big picture of the states's GDP or the state's tourism, that is fine and maybe it's not that big a deal. But going from 80/20 to 90/10 definitely reduces the amount of money brought into Wyoming, that is a fact.
It sounds like tourism is a big deal for Wyoming as the 2nd largest industry in the state:
Tourism is a big business in Wyoming. Find out about the ongoing advocacy and education efforts from the Wyoming Office of Tourism.
industry.travelwyoming.com
And the time of year when non-residents hunt is one of the lower tourism times of the year.
I want to stay out of this debate as it is something all constituents in Wyoming, resident hunters, outfitters, landowners, WYG&F, wolf lovers....should have a say in. Non-resident hunters don't have a say and shouldn't, but the issue is the large sums of money non-residents have "invested" in points based on 20+ year system would become devalued by 50% overnight. I understand residents want more tags, wouldn't they want 100% of the tags? You want your cake and you want to eat it to, you would like for non-residents to continue to supply the majority of the funding for the G&F but reduce their tags. Maybe with 90/10 you will get your cake and you will get to eat it too, but I ask, why not 100/0 if it is all about the smiles of happy residents? Just take all of the tags, why not?