SJR Q & SB 822: Fund Logging and Mining Roads Through State Land with the Natural Resources Trust Fund

SB 822 and SJR Q allow money from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to be used to build logging and mining roads through state land and to build dredging and breakwater infastructure in state waters. SJR Q proposes a Constitutional Amendment to allow these expenditures. 

The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund was created in 1976 and voted into the State Constitution in 1984 to protect natural resources and purchase state recreation lands from the sale of natural gas and oil leases. It is a compromise to compensate the future citizens of Michigan for the loss of non-renewable resources with recreation land. This bill expands the trust mandate to build roads through state lands for sole benefit of logging and mining interests, and, in doing so, destroys the character and purpose of the trust.

Sponsor: Thomas Casperson (R - Escanaba)
Current Status: In Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes

>View Full Bill Description (SB 822)
>View Full Bill Description (SJR Q)