Copyright M Live Michigan
LANSING, MI — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed a package of bills boosting conservation funding and extending routine environmental agency fees. In October, Whitmer signed four bills into law that together extend permitting and programming fee collection authorities at the departments of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). One bill, HB 4392 sponsored by Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, allocates $41.8 million to the Natural Resources Trust Fund to pay for 85 conservation and public recreation projects statewide as a supplemental 2025 appropriation. Others bills include SBs 273, 577 and 579, which extend state fee collection authorities. One extends the sunset of a water quality protection fee at MDARD that funds agricultural conservation programs to reduce runoff. The other two extend EGLE’s authority to collect roughly $8 million in annual fees for training and certifying public water system operators, and administering permits for shoreline work, water-discharge regulation and hazardous-waste handling.
