USO and New Mexico

[PinonPaul]

Does anyone know how much involvement George and USO had in the NM G&F decision a couple of years back to limit non-guided non residents to 10% max of the tags? I have always heard that USO was behind this and lobbied G&F to get it in place while at the same time making certain 12% of the tags were reserved for guided NR's. If so its amazing how hypocritical this guy is in regards to what they did with Arizona. As we all know now the judge has ruled this unconstitutional and New Mexico should be the first place that hunters fight back. Time to hit George on his home turf!

 

[nmtaxi]

PP, I don't know for a fact, but I believe it was him. And what he did was not put a cap on non-residents, but garuanteed 10% tags to unguided non-residents, and 12% of the tags to guided non-residents. That's 22% of the tags GARUANTEED to NR. It helps him in this state. And you are right. It's time we got this "cap" changed in NM.

 

[PinonPaul]

Taxi, when I look at the NM draw statistics ( mainly at the Gila units ) I see the the 10% non-guided cap is met on all the hunts. You are right, this is a garuantee, but it is one that limits non-guided non-residents to no more than 10% of the tags. We used to have that same garuantee here in AZ until last week. I would like to draw another good Gila tag someday but since they did that it has become nearly impossible. I will not use a guide or have my arm twisted into registering with one like they want me to. Its time the 12% guided tag garuantee goes away. That's like subsidizing their businesses with public tags.

 

[nmelk13]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-20-04 AT 10:21AM (MST)[p]I think we would open up a can of worms though. As far as I remember USO did threatend a lawsuit and NM counter with what we have now and they agreed. IMO I think they would try and get it where everyone has the same chance at drawing a tag if things started to get heated. What we have now isn't the best by any means but it seems to be the lesser of two evils....

 

[nmtaxi]

You're right PP. It's not fair to give guided NR hunters the advantage. I think it's going to become a mute point soon.
If NR were on equal ground with residents, I don't think they would end up with 22% of the tags like they do now. I'm sure that NR don't make up 22% of the applicants. But, like AZ, the quality hunts are the ones that would get harder to draw for. The rest would probably be easier.