Senate Bill S2794

                                BILL NUMBER:S2794                REVISED 4/24/14

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in
relation to the suspension or revocation of fishing, hunting and
trapping licenses pursuant to the interstate wildlife violator compact

PURPOSE: To amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
the suspension or revocation of fishing, hunting and trapping licenses
pursuant to the interstate wildlife violator compact.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:  Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) -
71-0919(1) is amended by adding a new paragraph g to provide that when
a license privilege is revoked or suspended by a participating state
in the IWVC, the violation and subsequent revocation or suspension in
that state shall constitute the basis for revocation or suspension in
this state for the same privilege and period of time.

JUSTIFICATION: The text of the IWVC is found at ECL § 11-2503.
Article V of the IWVC reciprocal recognition of suspension - requires
that all participating states recognize the suspension of license
privileges of any person by any participating state as though the
violation resulting in the suspension had occurred in their state and
could have been the basis for suspension of license privileges in
their state. Each participating state is responsible for communicating
suspension information to the other participating states.

              

New York State joined the IWVC in 2005; at that time there were 16
participating states in the Compact, today there are 30 states and
more signing up each year, including Pennsylvania in the very near
future which alone is expected to add thousands more revocations to a
backlog of nearly 5000 which exist today. - Currently, each revocation
notice posted on the IWVC Web page must be painstakingly reviewed for
content and applicability to New York revocable violations. Other
participating states in the IWVC eliminate this large administrative
burden by simply adopting all revocations and suspensions posted by
other participating states. New York State's law puts the additional
requirement on the program that the violation which a subject is
revoked for must be identical to a revocable violation in New York
State. This additional requirement allows many egregious violators of
wildlife laws in other member states (some even New York State
residents) to escape revocation in New York due to narrow scope of
revocable offenses under the ECL.

The purpose of the IWVC is to prevent these offenders from farming
around for sporting privileges when they have been revoked in another
state, it is also intended to prevent member states from becoming a
dumping ground for all the violators that can't get a sporting license
anywhere else, New York state does not want or need the license sales
from these individuals.

Amending the ECL as per this proposal will eliminate the backlog of
current suspensions to be reviewed by making them all eligible for
revocation in New York State. It will eliminate the large
administrative burden currently existing to individually review and
process these thousands of notices, and eliminate the need for
additional staffing to accomplish the time consuming review of each of
these IWVC suspensions. Most importantly however, it will protect


wildlife and legitimize the program by revoking the hunting and or
fishing privileges of all persons who have committed serious wildlife
offenses in other member states.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:  05/01/12 - S.7150 Referred to Environmental
Conservation/ 01/04/12 - A.6093 Referred to Environmental Conservation
01/23/13 - S.2794 Referred to Environmental Conservation/ 01/30/13 -
A.4002 Referred to Environmental Conservation

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This law will take effect immediately.