Outdoor sports enthusiasts will be asking the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to fish into their pockets.
A $1 fee increase was accidentally charged to 5,000 fishing and turkey license holders.
The extra fee has DNR Director K. L. Cool scrambling to send dollar rebates to those who were charged wrongfully.
“This was unfortunate, but it was dealt with quickly,” DNR spokesman Brad Wurfel said.
Wurfel said the foul-up occurred April 9, when some hunters and anglers were charged $1 extra for their license, and seniors were charged an extra 40 cents for their license.
The fee reverted back to $14 the same day.
The increase to $15 was mistakenly included into “otherwise good legislation” that recently passed and was enacted immediately, Wurfel said.
“The bill had nothing to do with fee increases,” he said. “Lawmakers were taken by surprise. We were taken by surprise.”
As of Tuesday, the total amount of money the department will be giving back was unknown.
The department still is waiting for reports to reach them on the amount of money that will be refunded, he said.
Some local sporting goods shops say even if the raise was unintentional, people still took the bait.
Customers didn’t notice the increase, said Doris Spohn, owner of Four Seasons Bait & Tackle.
“It was kind of weird that they had this on there,” she said. “(Customers) usually complain about a dollar.”
The store, at 1210 N. Cedar St. in Lansing, sells between $3,000 and $5,000 a week on fishing licenses.
Spohn said business was slow on the day the prices were raised.
“We had a cold weekend, it depends on weather,” she said. “We sold a dozen or so, it wasn’t that significant. And the next day we go the letter.”
Last week, the store sold $4,000 in gaming licenses.
Local license holders haven’t heard anything and say this can’t be good news for the DNR.
Mechanical engineering sophomore Gabe Krell bought an all-species fishing license for $27 and no one mentioned to him about getting back a dollar, he said.
Krell said his license covers all species and that people who only had to pay $14 probably just got their licenses for one particular type of fish.
“I think a lot of people will want their dollar back just in spite of the DNR,” he said. “They do have a bad reputation because of a few bad instances where they were in the wrong, or for just enforcing things that are minuscule.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
