AK NIMROD,
Not sure about your question on the new small game license, never thought about it that way, but I would have to agree with you. Providing the general resident hunting license still covers small game.
I've done some checking and learned that there is an organization that will be watching to ensure that the fee increases are infact used for wildlife managment, so we'll see.
Registered permits will now have a $10.0 fee, and drawing permit application fees are going up. I found nothing regarding brown/grizzly fees increasing either.
Kind of makes one wonder what happpened to all of that $50.00 dollar a barrel, oil money.
Here's a better link than the one I posted earlier.
http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/special/license/license.php