Lansing, MI – (Great Lakes Radio News) – Legislation reforming management of state owned land by the Department of Natural Resources has been approved in the state Senate.
The bills, authored by State Senators Tom Casperson of Escanaba and Darwin Booher of downstate Evart, make reforms in four areas.
They require the state to make payments in lieu of taxes, swamp taxes, and CFA payments on time and in full or face ownership caps returning on counties in northern Michigan.
They allow certain counties the ability to object to state land purchases in areas where there is already significant public land ownership.
They also aim to improve public access to and use of state land and reform the land transaction process.
In exchange for the reforms, the cap on state land purchases currently above the Mason-Arenac line in northern Michigan would be removed.
The bills now head to the State House for consideration.
