LANSING – Voters could, at an upcoming election, see a constitutional amendment aimed at giving more flexibility to the Natural Resources Trust Fund and ensuring that mineral royalties continue to go to parks and recreation activities.

The State Parks Advisory Committee is expected at its December meeting to adopt a resolution that would support a constitutional change redirecting those royalties payments to a natural resources effort, rather than to the state general fund. The group appeared open also to giving the Natural Resources Trust Fund Board more flexibility.

“We definitely want to see this revenue stream perpetually dedicated to natural resources rather than some day going to general fund,” Tom Bailey, a member of the advisory committee and of a task force developed by Rep. Andrea LaFontaine (R-Columbus), said at the committee’s meeting Thursday.

Under current constitutional provisions, the trust fund is capped at $500 million, which it has already reached. Oil, gas and mining revenues then flow to the State Parks Endowment Fund, which could reach its $800 million cap in the next few years, depending on revenues coming in.

Bailey said response at outreach meetings and to a survey Ms. LaFontaine sponsored showed support for keeping those revenues flowing to natural resources.

LaFontaine, who did not attend the committee meeting, told Gongwer News Service after that seems to be the consensus of the public.

“There’s a possibility one day it could overflow into the General Fund and we know that’s not what voters intended,” LaFontaine said of the funds. “A lot of citizens truly believe that keeping it for its intended purpose, the Natural Resources Trust Fund and the State Parks Endowment Fund, is where it should be.”

LaFontaine said she discussed the feedback from her “roadshow” with a variety of stakeholders Wednesday with the intention that the representatives go back to their groups and begin to formulate a plan to address the issue.

She is planning another meeting in about a month to actually begin drafting, but said she does not have a deadline when she would like to see legislation introduced.

A key concern for the parks, Bailey said, is if the endowment fund reaches its cap, revenue for parks operations could slow. Right now, half of each year’s revenue goes into the fund and half goes to operations. Once the cap is reached, only earnings on the fund could be used for operations.

Bailey said some of the findings of the survey were surprising, particularly that while people supported using more for development projects, they did not support using the funds for dredging or logging roads.

“I think most of us were surprised that there wasn’t any real substantial public support for the things that we heard coming out of the Legislature,” he said.

The trust fund board currently is limited to spending 25 percent of its annual funds for development. The other 75 percent has to be used for land purchases. While he said there was support for more public lands, there was also support for more use of the funds for development projects.

One of the efforts now, Bailey said, is to develop a coalition of support for an amendment.

LaFontaine said her goal was to try to develop a plan that most of the groups could support.

“There will always be concerns when you have that many different views on an issue,” she said. And if there is not a consensus? “The option to do nothing is there as well,” she said.

“We don’t want any proposal to come from any one stakeholder or, for that matter, from the Legislature,” Bailey said. “If it doesn’t have broad support, it’s not going to pass. There’s a no vote mentality.”

LaFontaine said work so far has been collegial and productive. “Everybody has come into the conversation with an open mind,” she said.

A key supporter for any plan, Bailey said, will be the Michigan Oil and Gas Association. That organization represents the oil and gas development companies that provide the revenue to the funds.

The committee had originally planned to adopt a resolution Thursday to support development of the constitutional amendment, but Mr. Bailey recommended holding off a month to revise the resolution to include findings from LaFontaine’s public comment process.

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