I'm sure I was inaccurate, even exaggerating - extrapolating, hyperbole - with "most" - but the governor can pad from the general budget however he chooses, and all taxes collected go into the general budget.
Every portion of the TPWD website statement can be bent just enough - if you can find one of those game wardens, he'd probably disagree with its accuracy - privately, though certainly not publicly. Inside TPWD it's probably very close to the truth, but the money has to get to TPWD first.
Could count on one hand the number of times I've seen Texas MSEO on the water, and even then, more times I've seen county sheriffs rather than game wardens. Game Wardens are spread pretty thin with all their responsibilities. If you think about it, county sheriffs are probably first on the water when drowning victims need to be found.
(Registering swimmers may not be a separate argument.)
I looked it up - 7 states require paddleboat registration - Alaska, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. I doubt if any have a helicopter on stand by for kayak rescue.
Interesting discussion here about the pros and cons of registration, with the cons far outweighing the pros, though also the agenda of the organization:
https://www.americanwhitewater.org/cont ... gistrationThey draw the interesting parallel with bicycles.
Cities like SA that build greenways for bicycles and baby carriages justify their budget with improved public health initiative.
I know in Alaska, rescue of downed private airplanes is fielded by USAF Special Ops Command - it's part of their training. A fishing buddy is the retired Commander AFSOC - he flew a rescue tour in VN, and four in AK. They get incredible blows in Alaska coming off the Bering Sea, and he fielded as many as a dozen private plane crashes in a single day.