These fee increases aren't that big in the grand sceme of things. The pencentage increase shouldn't be a huge issue either. If a stick of gum goes from 1 cent to 2 cents, it's 100% increase, but so what.
If you shoot a good size deer, figuring that your gun has been around a while and has depreciated, or that you aren't getting a new one every year, the price per pound of meat is still cheap. Ammo is farily cheap, guns aren't actually that expensive for something that will do the job, and a tag isn't too bad either, all things considered.
And I know that this is a tax, but it is there for two purposes. Raise money for DNR and to restrict hunting to manageable levels. The gov't doesn't own the deer, but if they don't put some restrictions on things, you'll get folks who take more than their fair share or more than they need. Without any controls, there will be folks that put 10-20 deer in there freezers, because they can. Everyone will start thinking that the deer are theirs to the exclusion of anyone else. Worse yet, deregulation would bring about commercial hunting, similar to commercial duck hunting of years gone by. Wild game became another resource to be harvested without any thought to maintaining the long term viability of those resources. This is what is currently happening to fish stocks in our coastal fisheries.
It may seem unjust, but paying for licenses probably does more good than harm.
