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(Continued from page 26)
• State Wildlife Director Tony Leif said solid license sales have helped offset the department's rising costs, but they've gone up 18 percent since the last fee increase in 2005 and another one is needed.
• Leif said the Game, Fish and Parks Department looked at budget cuts first, but there was still a gap. In raising the fees, he said, the goal was to take in enough money to pay for programs without discouraging participation in hunting and fishing.
• If he thought the increases would result in dramatic drops in people coming to South Dakota to hunt, he wouldn't have supported them, he said.
• Commissioner John Cooper of Pierre said some businesses that cater to nonresident hunters wonder if South Dakota penalizes out-of-staters to keep the costs low for residents. He asked Leif if a study should be done to project sales years out and raise all license fees accordingly.
• Commissioners bumped the cost of an annual state park license by $2 to $30 per vehicle, with the fee for a second vehicle going up $1 to $15. Officials say the change will bring in an additional $157,000 annually.
• Group lodging fees at Shadehill, Lake Thompson, Palisades and Newton Hills also will increase.
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Tribal leaders push for big Indian voter turnout
SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN,Associated Press
• ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A tribal newspaper in Arizona is publishing a detailed voter guide for the first time ever. A New Mexico pueblo is sending kindergartners home with get-out-the-vote buttons for their parents. Tribes in Wisconsin are reaching out to young adults with a Rock the Vote event.
• Native American communities nationwide are working hard to tap about 3 million Native American voters, hoping to turn around low voter participation that has persisted in Indian Country for decades. The push is being headed by the National Congress of American Indians, the largest group representing Native Americans, which calls low turnout a "civic emergency" -- fueled by everything from language barriers and vast distances between polling places to high unemployment and poverty.
• "As we look at why our vote is so important, our political activism really is aimed at making sure that we can address critical concerns in our communities," said NCAI executive director Jacqueline Johnson Pata.
• The NCAI and its partners are focusing on 18 states with high Indian populations, and their efforts are not without challenge. The NCAI said in a recent report that voter ID laws could negatively affect participation this year in Native American and (Continued on page 28)
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