Michigan state Rep. Ken Borton has a message for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources: “Call my bluff on fee increases, I dare you.”

The Gaylord Republican blasted Whitmer’s DNR on Wednesday after the governor included a plan to hike hunting, fishing and boating fees in her 2026 budget recommendations.

DNR officials floated a similar proposal during Democrats’ lame duck session last year, prompting a rebuke from Borton and others who contend the department should be doing much more with the revenues it already receives.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“I don’t know how much clearer I can make myself; if DNR leadership continues this ridiculous crusade to hike fees across the board – an action that does nothing but punish those who love the outdoors – we are going to zero out their budget,” Borton, chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a statement.

“This is not a threat,” he said. “This will be their reality if the DNR does not commit to working with us to protect access to the outdoors.”

Borton focused his ire on DNR Director Scott Bowen, the former lottery commissioner from Grand Rapids Whitmer appointed to helm the department in 2023.

“If fee increases are so important, the director is going to have to sit in our public meeting and explain exactly why he needs them and why the money he already has – which many would say is grossly misspent – isn’t enough,” Borton said. “He’s going to have to justify every single dollar they want to spend. If the committee is convinced, it goes into the budget. If not, try again next year.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Legislation introduced in December aimed to increase fees for hunting, fishing and boating by 30% or more, and to automatically charge residents for a state park pass when they renew their auto registrations.

The license fee increases would have increased the DNR’s annual revenues by $22 million, while shifting from an opt-in to opt-out for state park passes would have generated another $42 million annually.

DNR officials told lawmakers the latter would go toward a $200 million maintenance backlog in the state park system, which DNR Parks Chief Ron Olson said faces a $30 million annual shortfall, Great Lakes Now reports.

“We accumulate $45 million every year in the added maintenance costs,” Bowen said. “Meeting those mounting needs will continue to be a challenge.”

Hunting and fishing license sales, the DNR’s largest source of revenue at about $65 million annually, have been on a slow decline over several decades, and the proposed fee hikes would help fund the rising cost of operations, expand the number of DNR staff and fund equipment upgrades.

In addition to the fee hikes, last year’s legislation also would have reduced discounts for seniors and the age required for a fishing license, and authorize automatic future fee increases based on inflation.

Borton was among numerous lawmakers who signed on to a Dec. 5 letter to Borton urging him to reconsider the proposal.

“Residents across the state have made their voices clear; they are tired of the skyrocketing prices,” the letter read. “Attempting to push fee increases and a recreation passport opt-out during a lame-duck legislative session is inherently dishonest to the people you serve. The DNR should expand its sales by providing better products and services to the public.

“The rationale for the proposed fee schedule offers no further comfort that outdoorsmen will receive better products and services from the department,” it continued.

In addition to the proposed fee hikes, DNR officials have also pursued a plan to clear cut 4,000 acres of state forest for solar development, a plan aimed at both boosting DNR revenues and Whitmer’s climate agenda.

Outrage from the public, lawmakers, DNR staff, environmental and conservation groups ultimately forced the Whitmer administration to “pause” that plan, though a 420-acre solar lease near Gaylord is moving ahead.

“Projects like this highlight the blatant hypocrisy within the DNR. You’re completely willing to jump into bed with the solar industry and the foreign powers controlling their purse strings but deny other smaller land-lease proposals without a second thought,” 50 state lawmakers wrote in a letter to Bowen. “You have a responsibility to be good stewards of public land – replacing forests with solar panels does not live up to that standard.”

Borton, among others, called for DNR officials involved in the clear-cutting plan to face termination.

“Mind-numbing decisions like this are absolute proof that the DNR is completely rotten to its core,” he said in a statement.