I doubt there would be no loss for the antelope, I think you have to dive into that one a bit deeper. The non-resident might not be the smartest tool in the shed, but thinking they are going to keep gobbling up more tags in units with no public access at special and full price is sort of wishful thinking. Many of those 50% of tags are doe tags at $35 per tag as well so saying the non-resident will continue at 50% of the tags and there is no change in revenue is an unknown and unlikely. You will have to make up the revenue by raising resident tag prices or raising non-residents some more.
The general elk and deer available for residents, makes it much more difficult to understand what would happen to revenue and hunt quality and would the G&F put more pressure on the general units with more non-resident tags going forward? You are assuming that loss of 6% is going to be converted to general...do residents really want that many more non-residents hunting their general elk unit? I understand the 7,250 is in writing, but couldn't that change? It seems like it has been debated to move it up or move it down over the years. Over the past twenty years that number has stayed exactly the same while the number of elk tags has increased significantly.
The other thing that is misleading is how much better resident odds would be with an increase in tag numbers. For deer and antelope, your odds would go up 12.5%, 7% for elk. So if your odds were 10% for elk, they go up to 10.7%, if they were 50% they go up to 53.5%.
That is definitely better, but is it worth raising tag prices for resident general licenses and how about the effect it will have on local businesses and state tax revenue? Maybe it is, but someone should do a thorough study on this to figure out what is best for your state with regards to taxes and businesses and what the resident hunter wants.
How many non-residents visit WY to hunt with friends without having a tag? I do it all of the time and spend a $1,000 per year for lodging and food and whatever else I buy....and I am not sure if that is counted anywhere or not?
These dudes tried to do an analysis, but are obviously bias:
https://www.wyoga.org/pdf/2017/sout...ting-Economics-Southwick-Associates-Final.pdf
Anyways, everyone has a bias for what is best for them...the resident wants to have general licenses as well as more draw tags for them as well as low prices, non-residents want to keep tags for them and not have prices push them out of the game (I have friends and family dropping out of the points game in WY every single year because of the huge increase in costs recently), the outfitters want more non-resident tags because it helps their business, G&F wants to maximize revenue because that's what pays for their jobs...it's all good everyone wants what is best for them and that is understandable.
