City Council Advances Fireworks Ban

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At its work session on Tuesday, September 11, East Lansing City Council discussed a draft ordinance (pp. 316-320 of the packet) to ban discharge of the aerial and other powerful fireworks legalized by the state's "Fireworks Safety Act" of 2011. The ban would affect all days except those protected by state law, and violation would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine. These parameters are consistent with bans adopted by other municipalities. The consent agenda for Council's September 18 meeting will include an item to set the date for a hearing and vote on the new ordinance for October 2.

The Bailey Community Association, at its meeting on Monday, September 10, adopted two resolutions to communicate support to Council for strong action. The first urged "East Lansing City Council to support a maximum ban on the discharge of fireworks and to also strengthen the noise ordinance overall". At the Council work session, City Attorney Tom Yeadon said he saw little leeway that would allow the City to effectively substitute a noise ordinance for a fireworks ban on protected days. The second resolution was to urge "East Lansing City Council and City Manager to lobby the state to enact a repeal of the new fireworks law". Council was supportive, and City Manager George Lahanas will raise the issue with the city's lobbyist at their next meeting.

New receipts from taxes and fees are about $2 million so far this year -- consistent with an early legislative analysis, but far below the $8 million to $40 million touted by proponents of the law. Two million dollars is about 20 cents per Michigan resident, and about 2/100ths of a percent of the state's general fund for FY 2011. The first $1 million in new receipts were earmarked for local jurisdictions to offset the costs of the new law, now that people can buy their bombs at the Meijer rather than having to drive to Ohio and bring them back illegally.  There seems to be no plan yet for allocating these funds, but dividing them equally across the state's 1773 cities, townships, and villages would leave each with an additional $564.

I called Senator Gretchen Whitmer's office yesterday to see whether she had come around to supporting repeal of the state law, and a staff member wrote back that "Senator Whitmer asked me to relay to you that when a new fireworks bill is presented before the Senate, she will definitely be looking very closely at it before she casts her vote.  She has received a number of complaints, and will take them all into consideration." Senator Whitmer's phone number is 517-373-1734.