Legislation watch
2007 Senate Bill 629: Ban swimming from a pier
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- Introduced by Sen. Ron Jelinek (R) on June 28, 2007, to prohibit jumping, diving or swimming off any pier, jetty or breakwater in the Great Lakes, subject to a $500 fine.
- Referred to the Senate Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs Committee on June 28, 2007.
- Reported in the Senate on October 11, 2007, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
- Substitute offered in the Senate on October 16, 2007, to replace the previous version of the bill with one that makes an exception for diving in an emergency. The substitute passed by voice vote in the Senate on October 16, 2007.
- Referred to the Senate Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs Committee on June 28, 2007.
- Passed 35 to 2 in the Senate on October 17, 2007.
Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No" - Received in the House on October 17, 2007.
- Referred to the House Natural Resources, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Committee on October 17, 2007.
Comments
1) heads up by Anonymous Citizen on February 4, 2008The tourism commitee is about to have hearings on this . It is about to come out of commitee.
This one was sponsored by a pair of Republicans!
And 90% of the Senate Republicans voted for it.
Isn't the Republican Party supposed to be anti-nanny state and stand for less government?
Guess again.
For generations prior no legislature broached this subject, this non-issue. Now the killjoy, all-protector babyboomer generation, who lost their fathers in WWII and Korea and brothers and friends in Vietnam, arrives and begins afflicting upon the body of our laws their generation's unresolved sense of loss by regulating every picayune risk to life and limb in Michigan.
Oliver Cromwell said it best 350 years ago, "Your pretended fear lest error should step in is like the man who would keep all wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a supposition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse it, judge."
The state should continue to have no interest in whether I jump off the Grand Haven pier up to the point where I call or signal for rescue or drop forever below the waves and the government responds with assistance or recovery. The state should seek just compensation for its full or partial costs in assisting me only when they render aid. Prior to that point, the state should keep its citation book close and leave the citizenry and tourists free to enjoy the pier and lake as we have in the past. I look forward to the day when Generation X takes the reins and frees this state to have fun again and lets the public reap what private joy they may take from public facilities and correspondingly bear the burden of misjudgments. Our current Democracy for Mediocracy in Lansing should curb its meddlesome ways.
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