By: Paul J. Sniadecki, MLSA Board Director
As we welcome 2024 many riparians are making New Year resolutions and setting priorities. Likewise, MLSA has recently updated its list of legislative priorities. As a many decades old, 501c3, non-profit organization, MLSA is prohibited from making candidate or political recommendations and endorsements. What MLSA can do, as many of our environmental organization partners do in Michigan, is to advocate for policy/issues that are the objectives of many of our members.
In making the list, the Board of MLSA was cognizant that we need to have both short and longer term priorities because some needed initiatives will take much time to develop in Lansing. We also included some legislation that is currently pending in the Legislature in 2024. We also used direct input from
many of our members to craft the following Legislative Priorities:
- Regulation of watercraft operating in wake sport mode.
- State-wide septic code as proposed by House Bill 4479 and 4480 and Senate Bill 299 and 300.
- All the legislative recommendations for inland lakes/streams in the joint agency Michigan 2022 Invasive Report. Those recommendations can be found here, see page 25.
- No state-wide preemption of local control of short term rentals.
- No state-wide preemption of local control of mining site development that adversely impacts lakes and streams.
- Tax rebate incentives for new installation of natural shorelines; and partial tax incentives for riparians who have installed a natural shoreline within the last 20 years.
After your review of the aforesaid listing, it is our hope we have included many of your concerns. Like any list, we most likely will have to modify it over time. Scientific work and new data can lead to new or modified objectives.