BOISE — The Idaho House on Tuesday passed legislation to increase Idaho resident hunting and fishing license fees for the first time since 2005.

The 43-26 passage of House Bill 230 came despite objections that if the bill passed, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game wouldn’t adequately improve its wildlife depredation claims process to aid agricultural interests. Opponents said the state’s fish and wildlife agency addresses depredation claims slowly.

“I cannot support a fee increase for Fish and Game until they get a handle on this depredation mess,” said Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, in debate.

But the bill’s floor sponsor, Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, said that under the legislation’s terms “we’ve essentially tripled the cap” on the big game depredation account, raising it to $2.5 million.

Gibbs said he expects that Fish and Game would adequately address wildlife depredation issues if HB230 becomes law.

“Let’s give them a chance,” said Gibbs, who added, “I think they’ve gotten the message.”

HB230 now goes to the Idaho Senate.

Gibbs said the measure would bring an extra $5 million annually to the coffers of IDFG, which receives no state general funds.

The legislation contains a “price lock” feature, Gibbs said, to help offset what’s described by IDFG as “churn,” in which sportsmen don’t purchase licenses every year, thus creating fiscal uncertainty for the state.

“This is a fee increase for people who don’t buy licenses every year,” Gibbs said. “But it’s not a fee increase to those who are loyal to Fish and Game, and buy licenses every year.”

The price lock program would generate $3 million of that $5 million annually. Additionally, according to a bill description: “The fiscal impact from a new fee required to purchase any annual license will increase the fish and game set-aside account in the dedicated fund by an estimated $2 million annually.”

Rep. Steven Miller, R-Fairfield, called to send the bill back to its sponsor, and then set up a new process for settling depredation claims.

BOISE — Idaho sold out its nonresident deer tags last year for the first time since 2008 and nearly emptied its inventory of nonresident elk tags, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore told state budget lawmakers on Monday.

“Nonresidents provide a little over half of all the license funds in this state, so that component is very important,” Moore said during Fish and Games budget presentation to the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

The increased 2016 out-of-state deer and elk tag sales illustrates a continuing trend of rebounding revenues, Moore said during an interview. The director noted that Idaho nonresident tag sales were deeply affected by a 2009 price increase — during the Great Recession — for “nonresident products” offered by Fish and Game.

“Numbers just tanked,” Moore said. “And this is the first year we’ve recovered all of that back. So really it’s the first year we’ve realized the benefits of a fee increase on nonresidents that occurred in 2009. And now that we’ve achieved that (deer tag nonresident sellout), we’ll level out (on revenue) because we can’t sell any more of that product. It’s maxed out.”

The department sold its maximum 17,000 over-the-counter nonresident deer tags in 2016. It also came within 200 of emptying out the maximum 12,800 over-the-counter nonresident elk tags, department Deputy Director Ed Schriever said.

Idaho resident hunting and fishing license fees were last increased in 2005, Moore said.

Moore said Fish and Game is working on revised draft legislation aimed at increasing purchases of fishing and wildlife licenses in 2017.

The proposal would offer a price lock for buying a license within the structure of a five-year offering. The draft legislation — which first needs the Idaho Fish and Game Commission’s approval — would increase the cost of resident fish and wildlife licenses, according to Moore.

“We’re looking at about a 20 percent increase in most of those products,” he said. “It ranges from $1 to $6 depending on the product you’re buying.”

Moore said the possible price lock program would be the first of a kind.

“No one has tried this particular experiment nationally, so we don’t know how it’s gonna work,” he said.

Idaho collected $38.7 million in hunting and fishing license fees for the 2016 state budget year that ended June 30.

Comparatively, it had gathered $39 million in revenue from those licenses in 2007, Moore said. But the director also urged caution when considering the higher numbers, which he said may decrease because of external factors.

It can be affected by factors such as wildfires and the national economy.