BY CHAD LIVENGOOD DETROIT NEWS LANSING BUREAU
Lansing — A Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would grant the state’s Natural Resources Commission power to designate wildlife as game animals, potentially deflating a citizens’ initiative to repeal a new law allowing wolf hunting.
Opponents of the bill contend the legislation is a deliberate attempt to upend their referendum before it can get on the November 2014 ballot by creating a separate law allowing the commission to authorize wolf hunting.
Senate Bill 288, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, also contains a $1 million appropriation, meaning it cannot be overturned by a citizen’s referendum — unlike the Casperson-sponsored 2012 law that authorized wolf hunting.
Currently, the power for designating game animals for hunting lies solely with the Legislature. Casperson’s bill would allow the Natural Resources Commission’s political appointees also to designate which animals could be hunted, with the exception of livestock and domestic animals.
Last month, the group Keep Michigan Wolves Protected submitted about 250,000 voter signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office for a referendum on the wolf hunting law.
“We see this as an attempt to silence the will of the people,” said Scott Kaplan of the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected campaign.
The Legislature’s use of appropriations to block citizens’ initiatives to repeal laws at the ballot box has come under scrutiny after lawmakers passed a referendum-proof emergency manager law in December after voters repealed the controversial Public Act 4 in November.
“If you believe that the voters aren’t going to be aware of this and if you think this isn’t going to come back to haunt you in the next elections, you’re kidding yourselves,” said John Wernet, general counsel of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, which supports repealing the wolf hunting law. “This is a subversion of democracy.”
Casperson said he is concerned voters could be duped by a wolf law referendum initiative funded, in part, with out-of-state money from The Humane Society of America and other animal rights organizations.
“The people could be marketed to vote for something” they don’t understand, Casperson said.
The Republican-controlled Senate Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes Committee held a hearing on the two-bill package this morning and voted 5-2 along party lines to advance the legislation to the Senate floor. Legislative committees typically wait a week or longer after a public hearing to vote on bills.
“We’ve had plenty of testimony on this,” said Casperson, the bill’s sponsor and committee chair.
Republican Sens. Casperson, Mike Green of Mayville, Arlan Meekhof of West Olive, Mike Kowall of White Lake Township, and Phil Pavlov of St. Clair Township voted “yes” on the legislation, Senate Bill 288 and 289. Democratic Sens. Morris Hood III of Detroit and Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor voted “no.”