Hunting, fishing license fee increases proposed in Michigan

Lake Orion, Mich. — Wrangling continues in the state legislature over hunting and fishing license fee increases in Michigan.

Legislation was introduced in the House late in 2024 that would have increased the fees substantially, but the bill died in the raucous lame duck session.

Since then, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed license fee increases in her state budget, and earlier this month state Senators John Cherry (D-Flint) and Jon Bumstead, (R-North Muskegon), introduced bipartisan legislation for fee increases.

The state House is working on its own version of fee increases.

The current license fee structure hasn’t changed in over 10 years.

“We haven’t had license fees (updated) since 2014. As you can imagine over the last 10 years just with inflation those license dollars don’t stretch as far as they used to,” Taylor Ridderbusch, the DNR’s executive policy advisor, told Michigan Outdoor News during the 2024 legislative session.

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The Senate bills 276 and 277 call for more gradual increases than were proposed by the House last year and ties future increases to incremental adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, which is used to measure inflation. That would eliminate the necessity of passing new legislation to adjust for outdated license fees.

The current fees for some of the more popular licenses are as follows: all species fishing, $25; base license, $10; single deer license, $20; turkey, $15; waterfowl $12, antlerless deer, $20.

For comparison, Gov. Whitmer’s budget would raise those same fees as follows: all species fishing, $40; base license, $17; single deer license, $30; turkey, $23; waterfowl, $18; antlerless deer $30.

Under the Senate proposal those license fees would be: all species fishing, $35; base license, $15; single deer license, $25; turkey, $18; waterfowl, $18; antlerless deer $5.

The Senate bills also would maintain the 60% senior discount and include a $60% discount for youths age 16 and under, reduce the cost of an antlerless license by 75%, and set parameters on how part of those funds must be spent.

For example, $2 from each license sold would go to the Wildlife Management Public Education Fund; $2 from each license would go to the Hunting and Fishing Recruitment Fund; and $1 from each license would go to the Hunters Feeding Michigan Fund.

The bill also would require the state treasure to compensate the DNR for the monies lost to the senior, youth, and antlerless license discounts.

In addition, the Senate bills would create a new complete license, which would cost $150 and include a base license, two deer licenses, one antlerless deer license, an all-species fishing license, spring and fall turkey licenses, and a waterfowl license.

Again for comparison, according to the DNR, regional average license fees for similar licenses in states surrounding Michigan are: all species fishing, $34.63; base license, $21.85; single deer license $29.60. (Regional averages were calculated from fees charged in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.)