The Natural Resources Department can institute a number of efficiencies, such as selling advertising in and charging more for the S.C. Wildlife Magazine. The state doesn't have to lose $500,000 a year on this award-winning publication. The $10 subscription hardly pays for the postage.
The agency also can contract some services. A good example of a successful program is the alligator removal program, which has been privatized. The governor may have stepped in a minefield, though with his seeming flippant remark about a local sheriff assigning someone to "just shoot the alligator." Alligators can be a nuisance, but they also are a valuable state natural resource.
The department is taking steps this year to reduce other costs. Pond owners now have to buy fingerlings from a private, licensed fish breeder instead of getting them at a discount from the state.
But as South Carolina heads into one of its busiest outdoor seasons with fishing, hunting and water sports in full swing, it's hard to see how the department will serve the public with fewer full-time enforcement officers.
Director John Frampton says the department's budget has shrunk by 35 percent in the last three years. It was cut by $5.9 million this year alone to $21 million. Cuts forced the agency to shrink from 1,136 employees in 1999 to 892 this year. The nine law enforcement divisions, seven fisheries and six wildlife districts had been consolidated into four regional offices. The agency soon will close 17 offices statewide, including two offices in Port Royal and Ridgeland.
Consolidating offices can save money. Natural Resources personnel can do their business by phone, computer, fax or radio. The public is somewhat inconvenienced, but business could be transacted in a number of ways and in a number of offices.
A reduction of enforcement officers, though, is worrisome. Boating-related deaths are on the increase this year and the culprit is a lack of funding, Frampton said two months ago. In the first six months of this year, the state had more boating fatalities than last year -- 16 compared with 14 in all of 2002. The agency has about 70 fewer officers patrolling the state's waterways, dropping from 290 to 220 in June. Fewer are on duty today. Offices that serve Beaufort and Jasper counties lost two active officers who took buyouts and retired Aug. 1.
Department officer Joel O'Quinn said the 13 remaining officers will have more to do with less support. He puts up a positive image, though, saying that cutbacks don't mean "free rein" for those tempted to violate the state's boating, fish and wildlife regulations.
Unfortunately, South Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation and Beaufort County is the fastest-growing county in the state. South Carolina ranks in the top 10 states in registered boats, with more than 380,000. That's a boat for about every nine people who live in the state, not to mention vacationers.
More people also means more hunters and fishers. All of them don't abide by the state law, especially the law that applies to the limit of animals and fish taken. They all don't abide by safety rules and regulations either.
Budget cuts last fiscal year also reduced the number of miles department officers could drive during a month, thus limiting enforcement. Budget cuts also have slowed response time for boaters in trouble as the agency has scaled back use of its rescue helicopter.
Unfortunately, Frampton is correct. It has been proven time and again that people who don't fear arrest will engage in unsafe activity, including too much drinking and boating and other violations.
The Department of Natural Resources could improve funding by increasing the cost of a license, requiring a mandatory hunting course, which hunters should pay to take. Other cost efficiencies probably should be implemented. The one place cuts shouldn't be made is in enforcement. That's tantamount to telling the sheriff and the chief of police to cut the number of patrolmen they send through neighborhoods. At some point the crooks figure out they can beat the system. It's the law-abiding people who pay the price.