Some believe Michigan’s military veterans and active-duty service members should get free passes to the state’s parks, boat launches and recreation facilities.

Democrats who control the Michigan Legislature apparently aren’t among them.

The proposal to waive the $14 annual recreation passport for those who defend America’s freedoms was left out of the $82.5 billion 2025 budget approved by Democrats in Lansing last month.

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While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has yet to make it official, her administration said on Veterans Day that changing how the recreation passport program works to cover the cost for veterans and additional funding for the parks system would be a big step toward “making Michigan the best place to be a veteran.”

“Michigan’s veterans are the best of us, and we can never do enough to live up to the sacrifices they have made,” Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said in November, according to Michigan Advance. “In next year’s budget proposal, we plan to give every one of Michigan’s 530,000 veterans free lifetime access to a state park.”

The plan would have changed how Michiganders renew their state recreation passport that provides vehicle access to 103 parks and other recreation facilities. The current process involves an opt-in when renewing license plates through the Secretary of State, or purchase with an additional $5 fee at a state park after the fact.

By shifting to an opt out system that automatically renews recreation passports unless requested otherwise, the proposal would have provided the state with enough to cover the cost for veterans, as well as an additional $17.2 million the Department of Natural Resources could use for maintenance and improvements, MLive reports.

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Ron Olson, chief of the DNR’s parks and recreation division, told the news site the change would have provided long-term funding to address $45 million in needed infrastructure and maintenance work.

Fees from camping and lodging reservations currently cover half of the park system’s maintenance and operations, with another quarter coming from recreation passport sales. Only about 3% of the parks budget comes from the state’s general fund.

The parks system received $273 million in federal COVID funding to deal with a backlog of infrastructure and maintenance projects, but Olson told MLive changing the recreation passport to opt out was designed “so that we don’t go backwards into the hole.”

Olson noted needed roof and road repairs looming on the horizon.

“It’s a legacy,” he said. “It’s a small investment for maintaining our accessibility to some very special natural resources.”

Michigan created the recreation passport program in 2010 as part of a bipartisan effort to boost funding for what was then underfunded and neglected state parks. The passport cut the cost of park admissions from $24 to $10, while eliminating a $6 day pass.

The cost of the recreation passport was later increased to $14.

The state budget office estimates an opt-out system would increase participation from 36% to 60%, providing a total of $21 million more in funding.

The DNR’s 2023-2027 strategic plan for the parks division identifies hundreds of millions in infrastructure needs, and points out that funding has not kept pace with inflation.

“Cost-of-living increases and ongoing inflationary costs will challenge us to continue offering the same level of services currently provided,” it reads.

State parks have witnessed a dramatic in visitors surge since the pandemic, with annual numbers jumping from 28 million visitors in 2019 to 35 million in 2021, and remaining around that level in recent years, Bridge Michigan reports.

The passports, with its fee tied to inflation, have set annual revenue records in recent years, with more than 35 million sold through May 2023, according to the Lansing State Journal.

“Amongst other things, the Recreation Passport has enabled the DNR to improve infrastructure and equipment, increase career staffing levels, expand operating seasons, and increase non-career staff rates to a minimum of $15 per hour,” Michael Desnoyer, administrative services chief at the DNR, told the news site.