A new piece of legislation aims to cut down paperwork for nonresident hunting land owners.
In Illinois if land owners allow hunting on their property, they must provide IDNR with documentation proving they own the land and the property taxes are paid.
Illinois residents have to file every five years, but those who own hunting land in Illinois and live out of state have to do it every year.
“I had hunters tell me that they were spending more time doing paperwork than they were hunting.”
State Representative Dave Severin introduced House Bill 5042 in January to will change the requirement to every five years for nonresidents .
“It's a logistical thing, but also, you know, those people are spending tourism money there, they're coming back and, you know, they're staying somewhere, they're buying gas and food and all those kinds of thing and a lot of them were like, You know what? This is more trouble than it's worth. I think I'll just get rid of my property as well. You know, I hate to see that happen.”
The bill passed out of committee last week and should be called for a vote sometime in the next few weeks.
