By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – If it doesn’t have a motor, people soon won’t need a state sticker to float it on an Illinois lake, river, or pond.
Illinois is doing away with its water usage stamp. Those are the stickers that anyone in Illinois who has a boat or other watercraft needed to legally be on the water.
Ed Cross, a spokesman with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said the change means folks don’t need to get a stamp for canoes, kayaks, rafts and tubes.
“A couple of the issues that the heat-transfer paper that the stickers were printed on would often fade, making them hard to read. Which in turn would make them ineligible to be used,” Cross said. “One of the other complaints we often heard was that the stamps could not be easily affixed to the water craft.”
Cross said boats with motors still need to be registered.
The water stamps cost $6. Cross said Illinois stands to lose about $440,000 in revenue each year as a result of the change.
“The Water Usage Stamp was first sold in 2014,” Cross said. “In 2017, the state of Illinois sold 74,012 Water Usage Stamps.”
The change takes effect June 1.
The department could revisit the Water Usage Stamp issue in the future.
