The Michigan Department of Natural Resources wants to increase license fees for the first time in a decade.
The DNR gets the majority of its budget — as much as two-thirds — from the hunting and fishing licenses it sells.
But lawmakers have not increased those license fees since 2014.
“Over the last 10 years, inflation has eroded the value of those dollars that are coming in,” said Taylor Ridderbusch, executive policy advisor at the DNR. “For example, in our hatcheries, fish food — just paying to feed the fish, to grow them before we stock them — that's up anywhere from 80% to 150% from where it was in 2018.”
Equipment and gas costs have also gone up.
Ridderbusch said the DNR is asking state lawmakers to increase hunting and fishing licenses across the board by about $10 to $15.
For example, the current annual resident fishing license would go from $26 to $39. A resident single deer license would move from $20 to $30.
The DNR also wants future fee increases to be tied to inflation, removing the need for new legislation every 10 years.
“What we’re proposing is exactly the same way that it works with the recreation passport,” Ridderbusch said. “We’re averaging, every three years, seeing that go up by one dollar.”
Those increases would bring in about $22 million annually, Ridderbusch said.
That money would help make up near-million dollar deficits in both the fisheries and wildlife divisions. It would also prevent the DNR from having to scale back programs.
“I think the obvious ones would be to look at our state fish hatcheries. I think you could look at our waterfowl areas, our state game areas,” Ridderbusch said. “I don't know that we would go wholesale closures on those right away, but probably a reduction in some of the things that happen there. Maybe a reduction in stocking or maybe a reduction in what kind of vegetation gets planted on a waterfowl area or a state game area.”
Ridderbusch expects the bill to be introduced within the next few days, with hopes that lawmakers could vote on it before a new Legislature convenes in January.
