FY 2017-18 NATURAL RESOURCES BUDGET H.B. 4237 (H-2) CR-1: CONFERENCE REPORT
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$408,954,100 |
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Items Included by the Senate and House |
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1. Transportation Revenue Package - Recreation Improvement Account. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional funds to reflect new revenues to the Account due to gas tax increases in the transportation revenue package. These funds are allocated as follows: ($50,000) Recreation Improvement Fund Grants, $50,000 Snowmobile Local Grants Program, $304,800 Forest Recreation and Trails, and $512,700 Recreational Boating program. This item is an adjustment to increases included in FY 17. |
817,500 |
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2. Forest Fire Equipment. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional GF/GP to replace aging wildfire equipment. |
350,000 |
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3. Michigan Wildlife Council. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional authorization for the Council to focus on promoting wildlife conservation. The Council is funded from a $1 per license surcharge on hunting and fishing licenses. |
500,000 |
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4. Wildlife Management - Increase Federal Funds. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional Federal Pittman-Robertson funds Michigan is expected to receive due to increased firearm and ammunition sales. |
3,908,000 |
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5. Oil, Gas, and Mineral Lease Compliance. The Governor included additional State Parks Endowment Fund revenue to hire 2.0 FTEs to ensure lessees remain compliant in their mineral leases. The House and Senate did not include this item. |
0 |
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6. State Park Revenue Bonds - Debt Service Adjustment. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional revenue to cover increased costs of servicing these bonds. |
2,200 |
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7. MIRecGrants System Support. The Governor, House, and Senate included additional Federal and restricted funds to support maintenance on the computer system used to manage the Department's recreation grant system. |
63,500 |
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8. Capital Outlay. The Governor and Senate included additional funds for State and local boating facilities, East Tawas State Harbor, and wetland restoration and acquisition. Funding breakdown is $4.3 million Michigan State Waterways Fund and $1.5 million from waterfowl hunting license fees. |
5,842,000 |
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9. Remove FY 2016-17 Capital Outlay. The Governor, House, and Senate removed prior-year capital outlay projects totaling $842,100 and reduced other capital outlay appropriations including forest development infrastructure, State game and wildlife area maintenance, and State parks repair and maintenance by $9.6 million in restricted funds. |
(10,442,100) |
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10. Reduce Over-Appropriated Funds. The Governor, House, and Senate reduced appropriations from a number of funds to reflect available revenue. |
(5,489,200) |
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11. Remove FY 2016-17 Employee Lump Sum Payments. The Governor, House, and Senate removed employee lump-sum payments made as part of labor negotiations for FY 2016-17. |
(1,481,800) |
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12. Remove FY 2016-17 One-Time Appropriations and Supplementals. |
(17,350,000) |
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13. Economic Adjustments. Includes a negative $531,500 Gross and a negative $92,200 GF/GP for OPEB and $4,378,500 Gross and $561,700 GF/GP for other economic adjustments. |
3,847,000 |
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Conference Agreement on Items of Difference |
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14. State Parks Repair and Maintenance - One-Time. The Governor included an additional $10.0 million GF/GP for various repair and maintenance projects among Michigan's State Parks. The Senate included this item, but changed the fund source to 'State Restricted Revenues'. The House and Conference included additional GF/GP for this item albeit at a reduced level. |
4,000,000 |
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15. Trail Development. The Governor included $5.0 million additional GF/GP for development of nonmotorized trails, focusing on the Iron Belle trail, which will connect Ironwood and Detroit with a walking and biking trail. The Senate included this item, but changed the fund source to 'State Restricted Revenues'. The House and Conference included additional GF/GP for this item albeit at a reduced level. |
2,000,000 |
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16. Swimmer's Itch Program. The Senate included $500,000 GF/GP in one-time funds for grants related to efforts to combat swimmer's itch. The Conference included $250,000 GF/GP for this item. |
250,000 |
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17. Conservation Officers. The Governor, Senate, and Conference included GF/GP funding to support ten new conservation officers and two support staff. The House included $1.2 million for this item. |
1,827,500 |
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18. Abandoned Mine Shaft Closure. The Governor included $2.0 million one-time GF/GP funding for a limited term FTE to coordinate the closure of abandoned mine shafts on DNR-managed public land. This funding would be sufficient to close about half of these facilities, focused on the higher risks to public health and safety. The Senate reduced this amount by $500,000. The House and Conference did not include this item. |
0 |
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19. Wetland Mitigation Banking Program. The Governor included $403,500 Federal ongoing, and $3,850,000 GF/GP one-time for the development of a wetland mitigation banking program on tax-reverted lands. The House included $2.2 million GF/GP. The Senate and Conference did not include the GF/GP portion of this item. The $3.9 million GF/GP that is not in the conference report is included in Supplemental Request 2017-4, which was recently submitted by the State Budget Office as an FY 2016-17 item. |
403,500 |
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20. Land Ownership Tracking System. The Governor, Senate, and Conference included $1.9 million GF/GP and $1.0 million from the Forest Development Fund that would enable the Department to complete the rewrite of this computer system which is used to track all state-owned land. The House included a total of $2.0 million for this system. |
2,900,000 |
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21. State Archives - Public Infrastructure Records. The Governor, Senate, and Conference included additional GF/GP to support 3.0 FTEs at the State Archives focused on making public infrastructure records available to the public on a long-term basis. The House reduced the increase to $188,400. |
565,100 |
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22. Chronic Wasting Disease. The Conference included one-time GF/GP for efforts to combat chronic wasting disease in the State's deer herd. |
1,000,000 |
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23. Bay City State Recreation Area. The Conference included GF/GP for the reconstruction of a playscape at Bay City State Recreation Area. |
500,000 |
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24. Onaway State Park. The Conference included GF/GP for the reconstruction of a pavilion at Onaway State Park. |
500,000 |
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25. Shooting Range Improvements. The Conference included GF/GP for improvements to shooting ranges throughout the State. |
250,000 |
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26. Invasive Species Prevention and Control. The Conference included additional one-time GF/GP for this program, bringing the total for FY 2017-18 to $5.2 million. |
200,000 |
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27. Off-Road Vehicle and Snowmobile Trails and Law Enforcement. The Conference included additional one-time GF/GP as follows: $226,200 snowmobile local grants, $176,200 for ORV trail improvement, and $100,000 for snowmobile law enforcement. |
502,400 |
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28. Minerals Extraction Summit. The Conference included GF/GP for a summit between industries and government agencies to address the issues facing extractive industries. |
50,000 |
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($4,484,400) |
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FY 2017-18 Conference Report Ongoing/One-Time Gross Appropriation............................. |
$404,469,700 |
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Amount Over/(Under) GF/GP Target: $0 |
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Boilerplate Changes from FY 2016-17 Year-to-Date: |
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Items Included by the Senate and House |
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1. Report Retention. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a requirement that reports be retained according to State and Federal laws. (Sec. 218) |
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2. Communication with the Legislature. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a prohibition against taking disciplinary action against Department employees who communicate with the Legislature. (Sec. 220) |
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3. Invasive Species Order - Swine. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a report on efforts and expenditures related to the enforcement of the invasive species order against swine. (Sec. 503) |
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4. Cervid Operation Licensing Fees. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a report on the use of cervidae licensing and inspection fees as well as a requirement that those fees be used only for regulation of private cervid operations. (Sec. 504) |
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5. Urban Deer Management Plan. The Governor and House and Senate removed a section requiring the Department to develop an urban deer management plan and to use it as a basis for discussion on the issue with local units of government. (Sec. 505) |
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6. Water Control Structure Certification. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a requirement that the Department not impede the certification process for water control structures on Michigan waterways. (Sec. 602) |
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7. Grand River Waterway Study. The Governor, House, and Senate removed a section requiring the Department to work with the State Budget Office to establish work project status for funds included in the FY 2013-14 budget for an engineering study on the Grand River. (Sec. 706) |
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8. Forest Fire Equipment. The Governor and House and Senate removed language related to performance metrics for an increase in forest fire equipment replacement that was included in the FY 2016-17 budget. (Sec. 809) |
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9. Snowmobile Law Enforcement Grants. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a section directing the Department to provide snowmobile law enforcement grants to counties from appropriations for that purpose. (Sec. 901) |
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10. Marine Safety Grant Report. The Governor removed and House and Senate retained a report on marine safety grants to county law enforcement. (Sec. 902) |
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11. Forest Management Technology Enhancement. The Governor, House, and Senate removed language related to performance metrics for an increase in funding in the Forest Management Division for technology that was included in the FY 2016-17 budget. (Sec. 1201) |
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12. Land Ownership Tracking System (LOTS) Replacement. The Governor, House, and Senate removed a section regarding the replacement of the LOTS system. (Sec. 1202) |
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13. Invasive Species Program - Increase Interdepartmental Funding. The Governor, House, and Senate removed language on performance metrics for this FY 2016-17 one-time item. (Sec. 1203) |
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Conference Agreement on Items of Difference |
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14. Waterways Projects Report. The Governor, Senate, and Conference removed a report on Michigan State Waterways projects completed in the previous fiscal year. The House retained this item. (Sec. 219) |
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15. Invasive Species Grant Earmark. The Governor and Senate removed a requirement that not less than $3.6 million appropriated for invasive species prevention and control be allocated toward grants. The House and Conference retained this item. (Sec. 251) |
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16. Michigan Conservation Corps Program Earmark. The Conference included a new section requiring that at least 25% of the appropriation for this program ($250,000 of $1.0 million) be spent on youth in economically depressed counties north of the Mason-Arenac line. |
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17. Increased Conservation Officers. The Governor, Senate, and Conference included a new section requiring that increased funds for law enforcement in the Department be used to hire ten new conservation officers and two new support staff. The House reduced the staff number to six. (Sec. 903) |
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18. Forest Management Investment. The Governor and Senate removed language related to performance metrics for an increase in funding in the Forest Management Division that was included in the FY 2016-17 budget. The House and Conference retained this item. (Sec. 808) |
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19. Gas and Oil Lease Audit Funding. The Senate included a new section prohibiting the Department from spending more than $200,000 auditing gas and oil lease payments. The Conference did not include this item. (Sec. 810) |
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20. Swimmer's Itch Pilot Program. The Governor and House removed language related to FY 2016-17 one-time funding for a pilot program to combat swimmer's itch. The Senate and Conference retained this item and changed it to allow the appropriation to be carried-forward and cover costs incurred before the bill went into effect. (Sec. 1201) |
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21. Abandoned Mine Shaft Closures. The Governor included a new section that established a goal of 50 closures for the new funds included in the budget for this purpose. The Senate included this item, but reduced the goal to 30 closures, consistent with reduced support for the program. The House and Conference did not include this item. (Sec. 1202) |
Date Completed: 6-8-17 Fiscal Analyst: Josh Sefton
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.