DEER HARVEST; REPORT                                                                                                                                       H.B. 6354 (H-5):

                                                                                                                                                                SUMMARY OF DISCHARGED BILL

House Bill 6354 (Substitute H-5 as discharged)

Sponsor:   Representative Michele Hoitenga

House Committee:   Government Operations

Senate Committee:   Natural Resources

CONTENT

The bill would amend Part 401 (Wildlife Conservation) of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to prohibit the Commission of Natural Resources from issuing an order or interim order that would require a hunter to report the harvest of deer or retain harvest confirmation number for that deer, unless the order was for deer damage shooting permits or disease control permits.

(Under the Act, an individual who violates an order or interim order under Part 401, unless otherwise specified, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days' imprisonment or a fine between $50 and $500, or both, and the costs of prosecution. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.103 was amended effective June 10, 2022, to require a person who harvests a deer to report the harvest within 72 hours of retrieval and to retain the associated harvest confirmation number.)

MCL 324.40118                                                                                                                       Legislative Analyst:   Eleni Lionas

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill could result in a savings for local units of government through reduced incarceration costs. Under the bill, penal fines could no longer be levied nor could those who violated an order to report their harvests be incarcerated. The amount of potential savings in incarceration costs is indeterminate and would depend on those costs for local units of government, which vary across jurisdictions.

Correspondingly, local libraries could lose revenue as the fines no longer would be levied.   Misdemeanor fine revenue goes to local libraries and the loss in revenue is indeterminate and would depend on the number of fines that would not be levied.

Date Completed:   9-28-22                                                                                           Fiscal Analyst:   Joe Carrasco, Jr.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Chris Semrinec

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.