Fun With Numbers

May 5, 2015
When we start tossing around big numbers, it's tough to put them into a perspective that translates to a relevant number to individuals. When you're bringing home $25,000 a year, a million dollars sounds almost too-large to imagine. So imagining a billion dollars (that's a thousand millions of dollars) is pretty much out of the realm of relevance.

Last week, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was going to distribute $1.1 billion dollars (that's $1,100,000,000) in revenues generated by the hunting and angling industries to state and territorial wildlife services across the nation. That probably elicited a resounding shrug from most of us. So, we wanted to put a little bit of perspective on that number. The best way to do that is to breakdown the massive number into smaller, more easily understood numbers.

So…..here are the way funds are being distributed by state by the voluntary taxes paid on hunting and fishing gear by outdoorsmen. Sorry animal rightists, but you didn't didn't raise this money.

STATE/TERRITORY
ALABAMA$25,562,321
ALASKA$51,951,630
AMERICAN SAMOA$2,502,516
ARIZONA$27,219,443
ARKANSAS$19,403,525
CALIFORNIA$44,134,573
COLORADO$28,516,034
CONNECTICUT$9,242,606
DELAWARE$8,232,316
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA$1,155,056
FLORIDA$25,607,039
GEORGIA$25,236,594
GUAM$2,502,516
HAWAII$8,232,316
IDAHO$21,670,126
ILLINOIS$23,783,360
INDIANA$18,386,530
IOWA$16,502,569
KANSAS$19,984,814
KENTUCKY$19,623,501
LOUISIANA$22,570,941
MAINE$11,872,265
MARYLAND$11,140,015
MASSACHUSETTS$11,131,347
MICHIGAN$37,569,842
MINNESOTA$37,850,616
MISSISSIPPI$15,109,447
MISSOURI$29,783,609
MONTANA$29,781,997
N. MARIANA ISLANDS$2,502,516
NEBRASKA$17,608,725
NEVADA$19,340,531
NEW HAMPSHIRE$8,232,316
NEW JERSEY$11,131,347
NEW MEXICO$22,125,164
NEW YORK$28,927,341
NORTH CAROLINA$31,320,942
NORTH DAKOTA$16,004,762
OHIO$24,084,830
OKLAHOMA$25,729,133
OREGON$26,047,277
PENNSYLVANIA$37,974,470
PUERTO RICO$7,024,381
RHODE ISLAND$8,232,316
SOUTH CAROLINA$15,674,905
SOUTH DAKOTA$19,016,379
TENNESSEE$31,366,355
TEXAS$54,850,661
UTAH$20,944,045
VERMONT$8,232,316
VIRGIN ISLANDS$2,502,516
VIRGINIA$19,431,901
WASHINGTON$22,215,325
WEST VIRGINIA$12,088,070
WISCONSIN$36,479,149
WYOMING$19,662,264