Our Funding Might Surprise You
$0 general tax dollars
You read that right—Arizona Game and Fish Department doesn’t receive a single penny of Arizona general fund tax dollars.
A lot of our funding comes from public spending on things like fishing and hunting licenses, tags or stamps, and via a federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition. The excise tax is returned to states in the form of grants, which fish and wildlife agencies use to carry out projects to conserve and protect wild birds and mammals and their habitats. Those on-the-ground conservation projects benefit not only wildlife, but all Arizonans who recreate in this beautiful state. You can learn more about the Wildlife Restoration Program by clicking here.
Unfortunately, those funds are stretched thin as we work to safeguard over 800 wildlife species. We need all the help we can get—and so do Arizona’s critters.