Published: Mar. 16, 2022, 10:12 a.m.

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ByExpress-Times guest columnist

By Randy Santucci and Dan Davila

The Pennsylvania Game Commission arbitrarily changed the opening day of deer season, destroying a highly successful Thanksgiving weekend structure that endured for 60 years.

Moving the opening day from Monday to the Saturday after Thanksgiving revealed a gross lack of knowledge and enormous disregard of the economic benefits linked to hunters.

One of the top sales weekends for many rural businesses was taken away. No regulatory impact study was done to assess the impact from this radical change, and tens of millions of dollars of localized business sales, and state tax revenue evaporated.

The arrogance of the PGC Board of Commissioners was further revealed, when they ignored even the fact the Saturday opener would be in direct conflict with Small Business Saturday, steering a half million hunters into the woods that…