In the past Michigan drivers were asked if they want to add a park recreational passport fee to their vehicle registration renewal, that could change under a Senate Bill that was passed in the Senate last week.

Mlive is reporting that Senate Bill 1258 would add an $11 recreation park passport to all of Michigan’s vehicle registration renewal fee.  It would be up to the person renewing their vehicle registration to opt out of paying the fee.  Today you are asked if you would like to add the recreational park fee to your renewal cost.

According to Mlive:

A recreation passport costs $11 for vehicles and $6 for motorcycles each year when a license plate is renewed through the Secretary of State and allows parking at Michigan state parks and campgrounds. Without it, it costs $16 to park vehicles and $11 to park motorcycles upon entry to a state park.

Recently the park recreation passport fee has a 33 percent participation rate and in the 2016-2017 fiscal year collected slightly more than $29 million.

The majority of money collected through the recreation passports goes to pay for state park improvement, operations and maintenance.  Some of the fees collected goes to local public recreation facilities, forest recreation and other expenses related to the upkeep of natural resources.

Senate Bill 1258 was introduced by Republican Senator Goeff Hansen.  The bill now must go to the Michigan House of Representative for approval and then to Governor Rick Snyder to be signed before becoming law.

It appears to me that the Senate Bill is looking to capture more funds from people who are not attentive to all of the costs they are being charged in their vehicle registration renewal fee.  I assume they are hoping that many people will just pay whatever the fee they are charged is and not remember or even know they can opt out of the $11 park recreational fee.

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