Section 27-2-30. Establishment of the Wildlife Endowment Fund; limitations on expenditures from the fund

   (a) The General Assembly recognizes that lifetime sportsman's license purchasers expect and are entitled to assurance that funds for such licenses will be used throughout their life expectancy to provide quality hunting and fishing experiences. Therefore, the General Assembly declares its intent that lifetime licenses yield annual revenue in perpetuity for the support of wildlife management programs of the department and recognizes that annual income generation is necessary for these licenses to be included in apportionment formulas for federal fish and wildlife funding.

(b) In recognition of its obligations to lifetime sportsman's license purchasers, the General Assembly directs the department to establish a fund known as the Wildlife Endowment Fund for receipt of funds of an amount equal to that generated by the sale of lifetime sportsman's licenses listed in subsection (e) of Code Section 27-2-3.1. Further, the General Assembly declares its intent to appropriate to the Wildlife Endowment Fund each fiscal year an amount equal to that generated by the prior year's sales of lifetime licenses. The fund is also authorized to accept contributions from private individuals and entities. All funds appropriated and those contributed to the Wildlife Endowment Fund shall be deemed expended and contractually obligated and shall not lapse to the general fund.

(c) The commissioner of natural resources shall be the trustee of the Wildlife Endowment Fund with full authority over the administration of the fund. The state treasurer shall be the custodian of the Wildlife Endowment Fund and shall invest its assets in accordance with Georgia laws and shall report to the department the annual income and contributions to the fund. The intent of the General Assembly is that such income from the fund be appropriated annually to the department for the purposes stated in subsection (d) of this Code section.

(d) The Wildlife Endowment Fund constitutes a special trust derived from a contractual relationship between the state and the members of the public whose lifetime license purchases contribute to the fund. In recognition of such special trust, the following limitations and restrictions are placed on expenditures from the fund:

   (1) No expenditures or disbursements from appropriations equivalent to the income or proceeds derived from the sales of Types I and Y lifetime sportsman's licenses shall be made for any purpose until the respective holders of such licenses attain the age of 16 years. The state treasurer, as custodian of the fund, shall determine actuarially from time to time the amount of such proceeds which remains encumbered by and the amount of such proceeds which is free of this restriction and shall advise the commissioner of such information. For such purposes, the commissioner shall cause the amount of proceeds from Type I licenses to be identified and proceeds from Type Y licenses to be accompanied by information as to the ages of the license recipients;

   (2) No expenditure or disbursement may be made from the principal and interest of the fund except as otherwise provided by law;

   (3) The principal and interest of the fund must be spent only for the conservation and management of wildlife and fisheries resources and the acquisition of habitat upon which such resources are dependent;

   (4) No such habitat acquired with money from the fund shall be voluntarily transferred to the federal government or any international agency or organization;

   (5) The trustee of the Wildlife Endowment Fund may accumulate the income of the fund and may direct expenditures from the income of the fund; and

   (6) Expenditure of the income derived from the fund must be made with the approval of the trustee in accordance with the provisions of the General Appropriations Act. The fund is subject to the oversight of the state treasurer.

(e) The fund and income from it do not take the place of other state appropriations or agency receipts but are supplemental to other funds and appropriations made available to the department for carrying out its responsibilities under this title.

(f) If the Department of Natural Resources is dissolved, the chief executive officer of the succeeding agency shall assume the trusteeship of the fund and shall be bound by all the limitations and restrictions placed by this Code section on expenditures from the fund. No repeal or modification of this Code section alters the fundamental purposes to which the fund is applied. No future dissolution of the Department of Natural Resources or substitution of any agency in its stead shall invalidate any lifetime license issued in accordance with this title.

Code 1981, § 27-2-30, enacted by Ga. L. 1998, p. 826, § 3; Ga. L. 2010, p. 863, § 3/SB 296; Ga. L. 2013, p. 141, § 27/HB 79.