Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020 - 45

$454,494 from the prior year's total. Adult nonresident hunting licenses also saw
a slight decrease of $8,593 from the prior year.
Sales from the Federal Duck Stamp (eDuck), which allows residents and
nonresidents to hunt migratory waterfowl within Pennsylvania and any other
state, were $623,492 a slight decrease (3.23 percent) from last year's amount
of $644,296.
Total expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 were $174,039,950.
This represents an increase of $73,617,367 (73.3 percent) over the prior year's
expenditures of $100,422,583. The majority of the increase can be attributed to
the expenses related to prior period escrow transactions as previously explained.
Payments to other state agencies for specialized services was $9,660,732 for the
fiscal year, an increase of $7,474,614 over the prior year's payments of $2,186,118.
The increase includes commitments of funds to the Department of General Services for future construction of the Pymatuning Wildlife Education Center, along
with a commitment of funds for an addition to the agency headquarters building.
The Game Fund's Restricted Fund Balance was $88,666,123 at the fiscal year
end on June 30, 2019. This represents an increase of $15,889,621, or 21.8 percent
from the June 30, 2018 balance of $72,776,502. The increase is attributable to
revenues exceeding expenditures during the period by the same $15,889,621.
Act 138 of 2002 amended the Game Code sections relating to mandatory
spending. The Game Code stipulates that a minimum of $4.25 from each resident
and nonresident license, and a minimum of $2 from each antlerless deer license
issued for which the full fee has been paid, is to be used for habitat improvement,
development, maintenance, protection and restoration conducive to increasing
natural propagation of game and wildlife on all lands under the control or operations of the Commission, including lands enrolled in the Commission's Hunter
Access program and other public lands open to hunting under agreement with the
Commission. The monies collected for the above are deposited into a separate
account.
The Game Commission reported that during fiscal year 2018-19, the number
of resident and nonresident licenses sold totaled 1,428,744, and the number of
antlerless deer licenses sold totaled 818,531. This mandated that a minimum
of $7,709,224 be expended and appropriated into a separate restricted account
for the above-mentioned habitat inprovement provision of which $11,001,279
was actually expended for the current fiscal year. The amount appropriated to
the restricted account for the fiscal year for these purposes was $7,500,000.
The $209,224 deficit amount will be added to the appropriations request for the
subsequent year.

- Prepared by the Office of Comptroller Operations,
Bureau of Accounting and Financial Management
FEBRUARY 2020

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020