- Senators OK fee increases to state hunting and fishing licenses, estimated to raise about $29 million annually for protection efforts
- Fee hikes backed by Gov. Whitmer and Senate Democrats were stripped from the state budget before passage earlier this month
- House Republicans say the bills, which prioritize education and conservation, criticized past fee hike proposals
LANSING — The Michigan Senate voted Tuesday to increase hunting and fishing license fees, with supporters saying the revenue would fund needed hunter safety and education programs.
“If we don’t maintain at least what we have, you’re going to get fewer and fewer people out enjoying the outdoors,” state Sen. Jon Bumstead, R-North Muskegon, told reporters following Tuesday’s Senate session.
“This is basically just to maintain what we have.”
The proposed fee hikes, which would vary by type and applicant, would generate about $29 million in additional revenue next year for the state’s Game and Fish Protection Fund.
But the legislation could be a non-starter in the Michigan House, where Republicans argued it would violate a recent agreement between legislative leaders and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on the new state budget, which raised marijuana taxes but dropped proposed hunting and fishing fees.
Whitmer and Senate Democrats had both included hunting and fishing license fee hikes in their budget proposals, but House Speaker Matt Hall made clear last month he would not support that.
“One thing we’re never going to have is increases in our hunting and fishing fees,” Hall, R-Richland Township, said during an Oct. 7 press conference. “We’re never going to have that so long as I’m speaker.”
Nonetheless, Senate lawmakers on Tuesday gave bipartisan approval to a two-bill package that would raise hunting and fishing fees.
In some instances, such as with deer hunting licenses for residents, fees would rise by as little as $5. But for nonresident deer hunters seeking a license, the fee would jump from $20 to $150.
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Of the money generated from the fee increases, $6.3 million would go to wildlife management efforts. Another near $5.8 million would go toward fisheries resource management.
Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, said during a floor speech that the fee hikes addressed the need to increase funding for wildlife conservation and hunter education “in the least burdensome way possible.”
But Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, was fiercely opposed to that characterization, instead painting the fee increase as shoveling more money to what he called an “out of control” state Department of Natural Resources.
McBroom referenced a number of recent DNR-related headlines — including the recent near-euthanization of a visually impaired deer named Peanut, an ongoing fight to save a similarly situated coyote called Kota and recent legislative hearings on feral pig killings — as proof “people are up to their ears in frustration with this department.”
“They’re shouting about it, and we’re not listening,” McBroom added. “Instead, we’re going to give them more money. It’s unbelievable.”
Michigan last updated its licensing fee structure in 2014.
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