License Fees Going Up

[Autumnlovr]

Please don't shoot the messenger....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 03 FEB 05 (so I'm running a little behind...)
Contact: Dennis Fedewa, 517-373-2425

License Fee Increase Approved

Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Rebecca Humphries
today approved a revised license fee structure for the 2005 license year at the monthly meeting of the state Natural Resources Commission, held in Lansing.

Under the new fee structure, most resident hunting and fishing licenses will increase $1 when they go on sale March 1. Nonresident licenses were
increased by $4 to $10.

"These modest increases will help us to begin to address a structural deficit that currently exists in the Game and Fish Protection Fund.," Humphries said. "We must take appropriate action now to ensure that we
will have the necessary revenues to continue the department's primary
mission to protect and promote the practice of sound wildlife management."

The last significant fee change that was approved by the Legislature
occurred in 1997. That legislation also authorized the DNR Director the
discretion to raise fees an additional $2. The first $1 increase was
implemented in 2001.

[alex-vitek]

Please don't shoot the messenger....
We won't, promise.

I do not see as much of an uproar over this as would have happened 10 or 15 years ago. Partly because it is only $1 which is next to nothing these days.

And $2 since 1997 is nothing to get most people riled up.