Senate DNR Budget Calls For All Motorists To Have State Park Passport

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/30/2025) All eligible vehicle registrations in Michigan must be charged to have a recreation passport to enter state parks, under a proposal by Sen. John Cherry (D-Flint) to generate $43.5 million in the next natural resources budget.

"Right now the passport fee is $14, and it is like an opt-in model. What this would do is reduce it to $10 and put it on all vehicles," Cherry said to MIRS. "It would be mandatory . . . so reduce the fee and require it on all vehicles."

Cherry chairs the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee. The panel On Wednesday moved its recommended natural resources budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 – B 172 – to the Senate floor 4-1. Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton) was the one no-vote.

Overall, the proposed budget increases state natural resources funding by $86.7 million, or by 16.2 percent, for the next fiscal year. Major increases account for new recreational fee increases, with the mandatory passport for state parks being the largest boost.

For example, $28.8 million and 19 new full-time job roles are set aside to address "increased hunting and fishing license fees," as well as $12 million "related to a proposal that increases boating fees."

In the Governor's proposed FY '26 budget, her office suggests increasing revenue for the state park system by $21 million through changing Michigan's opt-in structure for obtaining a recreation passport to an opt-out model. Her office made the case that the "opt-in nature of the program" has resulted in lower participation rates when residents pay for vehicle registrations.

When the yearly passports first became available to Michigan motorists in October 2010, nearly 2 million were sold in the first fiscal year. According to Michigan's Department of Natural Resources (DNR), 29 percent of the approximately 97 percent of all state park funding for operations and maintenance depends on recreation passport purchases.

But according to the governor's budget office, around 36 percent of residents are utilizing the passport, and "many residents may not be aware of the program or may choose not to participate actively."

In December 2024, the House approved legislation changing the purchasing structure for recreation passes from opt-in to opt-out, meaning motorists would automatically purchase the pass unless they actively seek out not having it.

Although the bill received some action during the final days of the state government's Democratic trifecta, it was not taken up by the Senate chamber.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Cherry directly thanked Sen. Jon Bumstead (R-North Muskegon), the Senate Appropriations Committee's minority vice chair, for partnering with him on the new proposal. Instead of following an opt-in or opt-out model, Cherry sees mandating that the passport be obtained as a bold idea making sense at a "very reasonable" $10 cost.

"When we look at the history of Michigan State Parks…until the changes, everybody contributed. There was General Fund support," Cherry said. "The General Fund no longer supports it."

He explained all drivers with registered vehicles would have access to all 103 state parks, 140 state forest campgrounds, Michigan historic sites and boating access locations, with the present-day $14 optional cost transitioning to a $10 expected fee.

"With respect to the fee increases, I have some issues with that," Theis said during the subcommittee meeting. "With respect to the park pass, when I asked how much money they needed for the projects they needed on the parks, they couldn't tell me. Just having (the) government bring in more money for the purpose of bringing in more money is something I find extremely problematic."

Cherry's subcommittee also moved SB 171 for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), increasing spending by $2.5 million. The proposal sets aside placeholder money for the Senate panel's intention to fund "small farm tariff relief grants" and to monitor and evaluate the effects of federal tariffs.

Another $100 placeholder was put in place for "ice storm relief" for Northern Michigan's maple syrup industry. At the end of March, a late-season ice storm swept through the Straits of Mackinac, hitting multiple counties like Alpena, Cheboygan, Mackinac, Oscoda and Emmet.

Cherry said he visited impacted maple syrup producers with Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) this past Friday.

According to Brownfield Ag News, Michigan's maple syrup production will likely be cut by at least a third following the storms, as more than one inch of ice coated more than three million acres of forest.

"This ice storm happened in the middle of (the) production season, so they were probably about a third way through their season when the ice storm hit," Cherry said. "You have people who have invested several hundred thousand dollars over the past couple years in their woods for maple syrup production, and now a good portion of that equipment is destroyed."

SB 171 , a $159 million MDARD budget, passed in the committee 4-0 with Theis not voting.