AUGUSTA – Lee Perry, executive director of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, led a similar effort to bolster fee income with General Fund contributions in Maine – with mixed success.

As commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Perry was able to demonstrate that 18 percent of the agency’s budget went toward activities that had nothing to do with hunting and fishing.

He convinced then-Gov. Angus King to provide the department with $5 million from general state revenues during his last year in office.

The funding was signed into law, but Gov. John Baldacci, confronted with a $1 billion shortfall in his first year in office, cut the budget. The fiscal 2004 budget included only $543,329 from the General Fund for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Since then, some of the money was restored but it still falls shy of the original $5 million goal. The General Fund contribution was $2.7 million in fiscal 2005 and $2.4 million in fiscal 2006 for the fish and game agency.