It doesn’t appear the state has much choice but to increase dog license fees.

Going another year without a hike means the state’s Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement would be broke by September, according to Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. In addition to managing stray dogs, the bureau monitors more than 500 dogs on a statewide database of dangerous animals, compensates shelters for housing strays without licenses and farmers for livestock lost to stray dogs and coyotes, enforces rabies vaccination requirements, licenses and inspects kennels, and investigates contagious disease outbreaks among puppies and dogs in breeding and commercial kennels.

It’s laudable the state has held the line so long on dog license fee increases, but holding the line for 24 years means there is a little sticker shock when legislation to increase license fees was introduced earlier this month.

The current fees are $6.50 a year or $31.50 for a lifetime registration; those would increase to $10 a year and $49 for a lifetime license.

The new fee is still less expensive than a license across the border in Jamestown, where it costs $22 a year to license a dog if the animal isn’t spayed and $15 to license a spayed dog. The fees in Dunkirk are $12.50 per spayed dog and $20.50 per unspayed/unneutered dog.

It really is difficult, then, to raise much outrage over Pennsylvania’s proposed increase.

What needs to happen, though, is a regular consideration of fees so that the state doesn’t find itself in this situation again. And state officials absolutely should not look across the border and set that as a goal for our state’s fee structure.