Nevada Hunting and Fishing Licenses for Disabled Veterans

Nevada's provision for disabled veterans here is a discount rather than a waiver, and the rating threshold is lower than most states set. NRS 502.072: "The Department shall issue any license authorized under the provisions of this chapter, upon payment of the applicable fee pursuant to NRS 502.240 and satisfactory proof, subject to the provisions of NRS 417.0187, of the requisite facts to any bona fide resident of the State of Nevada who has incurred a service-connected disability which is considered to be 50 percent or more by the Department of Veterans Affairs and has received upon severance from service an honorable discharge or certificate of satisfactory service from the Armed Forces of the United States." Note the structure. The section does not itself set a price. It directs the Department of Wildlife to issue the licence "upon payment of the applicable fee pursuant to NRS 502.240", and it is that fee section which carries the discount. The threshold is 50 percent or more, considered so by the Department of Veterans Affairs. That is lower than the 60 percent floor for the Nevada property tax exemption and lower than the total-and-permanent tests several states in this catalog use for outdoor licences. It requires an honorable discharge or certificate of satisfactory service. And proof is "subject to the provisions of NRS 417.0187", so a VA certificate showing the disability and its total percentage or compensation is sufficient evidence and the veteran is deemed disabled to the extent the Federal Government determined. The fee, NRS 502.240, subsection 4: except as otherwise provided in subsection 5, the Department "shall issue an annual resident specialty combination hunting and fishing license pursuant to this chapter upon satisfactory proof of the requisite facts and the payment of a fee of $15" to three groups: A resident aged 65 or older who has been considered a resident immediately preceding the date of application. A resident with a severe physical disability, defined in subsection 7 as "a physical disability which materially limits a person's ability to engage in gainful employment". "Any person who is a resident of this State pursuant to NRS 502.015 and who has incurred a service-connected disability specified in NRS 502.072." So the veteran discount is the same $15 specialty combination licence that a 65-year-old resident or a resident with a severe physical disability gets. It is a combination licence, which is worth noting: it covers hunting and fishing together rather than one or the other. What $15 is worth. Under NRS 502.240, subsection 2 a resident annual fishing licence alone is $40, and a resident combination hunting and fishing licence costs more than that. So the discount is substantial, roughly a quarter or less of the ordinary price for the equivalent privileges. It is not free, and a veteran told the licence is free has been misinformed. What the $15 licence does not include. Nevada sells tags and stamps separately from licences, so big game tags, the state duck stamp and the trout stamp are additional and the section says nothing about waiving them. Budget for those at ordinary prices. Residency is defined by NRS 502.015 rather than by general law, and both NRS 502.072 and the fee section require it. A veteran needs to satisfy the wildlife chapter's own residency test, which is not the same as the 365-day test used for some other states' disability licences or the one-year test Nevada uses elsewhere. For a veteran below 50 percent, the severe physical disability route in NRS 502.240, subsection 4(b) is worth testing independently. It turns on a physical disability that materially limits the ability to engage in gainful employment rather than on a rating percentage or on service connection, so a veteran at 30 or 40 percent whose condition has that effect may reach the same $15 licence by that route, and a veteran paid at the total rate through individual unemployability has, by definition, a disability that materially limits the ability to engage in gainful employment. Two adjacent provisions. NRS 502.075 issues hunting licences to persons who are blind, on its own terms. And the chapter provides for lifetime licences whose fees are set actuarially by age, which a younger veteran may find worth comparing against repeated $15 annual purchases, though the specialty combination licence is the cheaper route in most cases.