DNR News (Booth Newspapers)

[Will Schultz]

Column:
DNR looking at shutdown unless state's budget addressed soon
Saturday, September 01, 2007

The latest word around the Capitol on the proposed hunting and fishing license fee package is there's probably enough bipartisan support to make it go, but it isn't going to happen until the state gets the rest of its fiscal house in order.

And that's the rub. If you've watched what's been going on, the budget bills that have proceeded so far spend far more money than is available to fund them. Since there seems to be no stomach for either a tax increase or the kind of dramatic cuts in services it'll take to make things work, the process is in a stalemate.

Because the state's fish and wildlife operations are almost entirely self-sufficient, passing the license fee bill would leave the state's sportsmen in good shape as hunting season begins. But the Legislature is not willing to deal with these issues in piece-meal fashion; any budget agreement will have to be a combination of cuts and revenue enhancements, and lawmakers are not about to start the process on the money-raising end. That would only give some the opportunity to grandstand on the subject.

Whether that strategy is wise is a matter of conjecture. It's sort of like having a car that's still running but needs an engine overhaul and front-end work. Do you wait until you can get it all fixed at once -- and risk having a wheel fall off in the meantime -- or do you fix what you can immediately? So far, the answer is to wait.

So with only a month to go before the new fiscal year begins, the Department of Natural Resources is making plans to shut down entirely if there's no budget agreement by Oct. 1.

About the only DNR staffers who will remain active during a shutdown will be fire suppression personnel and Report All Poaching (RAP) telephone operators. Some fish, wildlife and law enforcement staff will be on call in case of emergency -- say, reports of a deer with chronic wasting disease or an especially egregious poaching violation -- but the day-to-day operations will cease. Conservation officers will not patrol. Parks and campgrounds will be closed.

As for spending reforms, we can't expect a lot of the DNR as the agency has already cut its budget a number of times to stay afloat. The agency has reduced seasonal and temporary employee numbers drastically and there are fewer COs and fire officers on staff than at any time in recent memory. There's not a lot left to cut without eliminating programs.

There will be some internal changes at the DNR -- the state plans to move human resources functions out of individual departments and put them all under civil service, for instance -- but those moves will not save any money in the short-term, only through long-term attrition. Similarly, there is talk of centralizing accounting departments state-wide. But the work still needs to be done. The only immediate change is how the money is routed -- the DNR will pay for services instead of directly to personnel -- not how much is spent.

But with some high-profile dates coming at the beginning of the fiscal year -- opening day of waterfowl season in southern Michigan is Oct. 6, remember -- some sportsmen may find popular, man-hour intensive programs (such as the managed-area waterfowl hunts) are unavailable in the short-term.

Over the course of the next decade or so, the DNR should have enough money to function at a relatively constant level -- presupposing, of course, that the fee increase bill passes. In the immediate short-term, however, we are likely to see disrupted services.

So let's hope the Legislature gets off its collective duff and deals with the state's budget ASAP.

Opening days of hunting seasons and peak salmon migrations, both rapidly approaching, are not the optimal time for furloughing the entire conservation officer corps.

[Bryan Saenz]

boy oh boy.... i sure hope the people who "love" to snag every salmon out of the PM river and other rivers don't read that... if they can read at all...

that will be the least of the worries i assume.

[Lureless]

I am sick and tired of the politicians bitchin more like little girls than getting anything done. Contact your local reps and let them know what you think of the job they are doing. I already hunt for muskie that wait to the last minute, now I am about to put a hook in states reps. Get on the phone or email and contact your reps. Last night they sure didn't get anything done again.....

[Will Schultz]

Find your district on this list:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/House ... 6750_7.pdf

Find your rep on this list and e-mail or call them.
http://house.michigan.gov/replist.asp

[John E. Sox]

As a DNR employee, it is extremely frustrating to watch these politicians plot another way to fix the budget by hosing state employees. Why should state employees suffer for a problem that is created by the politicians themselves? They are cutting our jobs and wages and you don't see them making any sacrifices. It isn't our fault.
Now, the sportsmen and women of Michigan are going to be paying if the DNR is shut down. In fact, I think we are already paying for all of these cuts. We don't have near enough CO's (in the UP anyway... not sure about the LP), fire officer numbers are at an all time low, we can't afford a mandatory check-in for whitetails, we can't afford to do half of our pre-scribed burns, fishery surveys and stocking are being cut, equipment is old and in need of replacement, parks are being closed, etc...
If you want a picture of how poorly the DNR is operating right now you should have seen the operations of the Sleeper Lake Fire: when the call came in, it was apparent that we needed marsh units to suppress the fires (there were two separate lightning strike fires that day within a few miles of each other). We only have three marsh machines in the state and we needed them all. They are all military hand-me-downs that have kept mechanics busy for 30 plus years. Newberry's marsh unit was the first on scene and had transmission problems before it even got to spray an ounce of water. It is still being repaired. Seney's was next in line and the operator was your's truly. It broke down on day two of the fire, was worked on for half of day three, and then, broke down again on day three shortly after the fire crossed our line and we had to evacuate. If it would have broke down ten minutes earlier it would have had to sustain the fire flame front as well. This unit sat, uselessly, in the black on the interior of the fire during the most critical stages of the fire. It is also still under repair. Gwinn's was third in line and actually made it through most of the fire with just a few small failures. This fire really showed how poor and how short-staffed the DNR is. We had to bring in a bunch of dozers and operators from the WI DNR, marsh units from federal offices, and we had almost every fire officer in MI on the blaze. We were in a drought period in most of MI at the time and this left almost nobody to fight all the other smaller fires that we popping up across the region. We had unexperienced personnel fighting some pretty hot fires. One person almost got surrounded by flames due to inexperience. We sent home our air suppression forces early to save money and the fire nearly took off on us again because they weren't there to help. Some fire officers worked close to 50 days without a day off due to short-staffing.
The overall point here is that the DNR is bare-boned already and subsequent cuts are just going to hurt our natural resources. This raise in license fees are fair (imop) and probably need to happen.

[Hamilton Reef]

I have meetings with the West Michigan politicians most every day. Sen.Gerry VanWoerkom's (and former Rep David Farthat) White Lake cohorts have had a plan in place ever since the last election. Simple plan is do not cooperate on any meaningful state budget progress and deliberately destroy the state into the ground. At the same time be sure to blame Gov Grandholm for everything. This allows the Republicans to step in at the last hour in 2008 election as savours of the state. VanWoerkom's cohorts are laughing how they get their money from the CAFO polluters, Ice Mountain, developers, and by destroying the DEQ budget they can make more money for their polluting corporate campaign contributors. VanWoerkom's cohorts are my adjacent neighbors and they don't want any DNR COs checking their deer violating, thus DNR shutdown is great news. Major point made by Whitehall and Montague city politicians is the DEQ and DNR should be abolished. Better for their developers and polluters. We have another tannery developers meeting on White Lake Sept 12 Wednesday 7:00PM if wish to attend. I listen and watch this bs everyday at the WL Senior Center and afternoon coffee at Lipka. Now you know why I have no respect for politicians.

[john c]

John E., thanks for the interesting first-hand info. Sorry to hear it, but thanks for sharing. Here's hoping things start looking up for you guys and for us all in Michigan.

John C.

[Kingfisher]

I share Hamiltons view of polititions. But I am disgusted with both sides of the isle as both Republicans and Democrats are corrupt and have sold this country down the drain. Michigan would not be in this trouble if not for Bill Clinton along with a Republican Congress who signed the free trade agreements into law. Ross Perot was right we have seen the great sucking sound as our jobs and industry have gone to third world countries. No one to blame but ourselves. We fell for the Bush, Clinton team of World trade liars and now we get to pay. Grandholm is a Joke, Engler was a joke, We need huge incentives to bring industry back to Michigan and we needed it yesterday. In the meantime Grandholm wants to put 90,000 unemployed workers through school.Who is going to pay for it??????????????????????. We need Industry back in this State or we are finished. The main pit fall is at the Federal level. We are allowing every company in the United States to outsource jobs right along with products. This has to stop. Michigan Workers can not compete with 1.35 per hour in South America. We can not compete with 1.10 per hour in China. As a small business owner guess what? I get to pay taxes three times. 10% federal excise tax, Income tax and if our Governor gets her way single business tax as well. I make less money than most of you on this website. Who in their right mind wants to move a company to Michigan and employ people when they can build a plant in Nicaragua and pay their labor 1.35 per hour. Thank 24 years of Republican and Democrat rule. If I hear one more person blame one side or the other Ill puke. The facts are all out there to read. Bush,Clinton and Bush and next we get another Clinton to shut the door. We deserve everything we are getting because we have done nothing to turn it around but whine. If we are smart we put Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinic in the Presidents seat. End Nafta,End the IRS and end the World Trade organizations stranglehold on America. SAY NO TO CAFTA!!!!!!!!!! Kingfisher

[Kingfisher]

The following is a price quote from an importer from Nicaragua on making a bucktail for me, note the cost per lure. They pay the excise tax on the imported price of the lure not the sale price. I currently pay 10% of the sale price of every lure I SELL. TOTAL COST .693 per bucktail plus components. These are facts people. This is happening to every manufacturer in the U.S. I could outsource my own job. For me to match the price here I would have to make 10 per hour and pay myself $6.93 an hour. I would have to make 30 per hour to make $ 20.00 per hour This is the problem we face here in Michigan. If I bust my ass I can build about 8 Bucktails per hour. What is the use to try?I cant pay an american to build anything for me and I am taxed to death by my own government. This is the truth as God is my whitness. We are losing thousands of manufacturing jobs every day and the slide is getting steeper not slowing down. Blaming the Republicans is foolish as it was Bill Clinton who signed all of it into law. But it was a Republican Congress that drafted this crap.

How does this pretain to our Club?? Well you are paying for Bulldawgs to be built in China. Did Musky innovations lower the price of the finished product? Rapala has been copied in the form of millions of super shad knock offs. Rapala is powerless to stop them because the World Trade organization protects the Chinese copy cats. The market is being flooded with South American tied Bucktails and Marabou plumes now being used by most Bucktail companies. Everything from cars to ink pens is being outsourced to third world countries and we do NOTHING!!!!! All we have left is quality and even that is being copied and done cheaper than anyone here can do it for. Raising taxes wont help because it just drives more industry to leave. Giving tax breaks to corporations doesnt work any longer because its not enough to get them to stay.

Grandholm is powerless to change anything because as a state we do not control the Federal government. Whithout a complete change in direction as far as our trade policies go we are destined to become a land of no more middle class. I will always have a job building lures until I get copied but will never become wealthy unless I outsource my own job because to grow I have to hire workers and I cant afford to pay more than a couple bucks an hour. The competition from third world contries is driving the warket into the ground in this way.

So I'LL close by saying this, Ill not outsource my work but Ill not hire anyone either. This is the battle faced by every business in this state. If we want to see this State come back we need to bring the entire nation back. We pick the next two presidential candidates in a few months. Only 4 of them would attempt to turn the tide back to America first. They are Congressman Ron Paul, Governor Huckabee, Mike Gravel and Senator Kocinic . But it looks like we are going to get Guliani and Clinton. Both will sign Cafta into law and close the door on America for good.

[Kingfisher]

Acouple more numbers for you all. I sell my bucktails for 7.50 each in lots of 24 or more. I pay .75 each in Federal excise taxes. The importer pays .058 each or about 6 cents on each bait. Totally unfair. Kingfisher

[Hamilton Reef]

Wed, 12th, I just returned from a meeting with Lansing DNR staff concerning White Lake tannery cleanup. A citizen comment was made about DEQ staffing which is now less than 40% of historic needs. If more cuts are made can you be effective. Answer much less, but they still required by law to do best they can. My state representative was sitting behind me. I was surprise she drove up for our meeting. She is turning around back to Lansing in morning and plans on marathon all night sessions coming up. She does not support any cuts to DNR and DEQ.

[Kingfisher]

I have spoke with our representative Mary Valentine by email. She seems to care but doesnt seem to have much clout. Then again no one has much clout these days. Its going to take a lot more than this state can do alone to break the hold that the W.T.O. has on our jobs. Every week another chunk of coporate America leaves and builds a plant in south America or Asia. With the threat of congress raising taxes again 2008 will mark the biggest loss of jobs in history. We opened the door for them to leave and they are going. Clinton and Bush have given them a new world to start their businesses in where there are no taxes,no healthcare and no enviromental laws. Record profits and short term wealth for thousands of small to mid size businesses.

Mike Gravel said "follow the money" if you want to see who is in control. Where has Michigans Auto industry gone? Korea? Mexico, does it matter? All the support companies are following one at a time as they get to where they cant afford to lose money anymore and are forced by competition to move off shore. My daughter in law is working two jobs as is my son. They are lucky to bring home 35 k between them. They cant even afford a moderate home for my grandson. The low paying crap jobs that have been replacing the good wage jobs are not the answer.

We are all getting a taste of it in the fishing lure industry. We are seeing lure quality drop to all time lows. Outsourced business and copy cat Chinese lures . THE MARKET IS FLOODED WITH ALL THIS GARBAGE AND WE DO NOTHING. I for one have decided to stop buying anything anymore that is not made in the U.S.A. period. Im investing my money in my Country. Please help me and do the same. If I cant find a product made in the U.S.A. then I dont need it. I started this today 9/12/2007 Mike King Kingfisher

[Walt Clinansmith]

I spend extra time and money to buy everything that is humanly possible from products made in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

[Kingfisher]

Way to go Walt, as fishermen we can do our part to not support the chinese and nicaraguan governments. The worms who are moving plants there do not deserve your hard earned money unless they pass the savings on. I have not seen any evidence of this yet. They just stick the extra profit into their ever widening wallets. Its called short term economics. You can make a lot of money in a couple of years before anyone figures out what hit them. Its sad that American Business men would sell out American workers for a quick buck. Kingfisher

[finlander]

How many muskie mfg's get theirs made overseas? How about Drifter and their Believers. Toledo Ohio, right?