(Re)Enter: The Nanny State-- OR --Click it or Ticket, Junior!
By RightMichigan.com Posted in Andy Dillon | booster seats | Breaking News | Democrats | jennifer granholm | Michigan | Nanny State | Tax Hikes — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
Michigan moms and dads, are you ready for Tuesday? Well, are you? Or maybe more importantly, is your eight year old ready? This coming Tuesday Michigan's fancy new booster seat regulation goes into effect and Junior had better be buckled up in a shiny new piece of vinyl or the Michigan State Police will hunt you down. "Even at night." Click it or ticket, kid. You don't want to cost mom and dad $65 bucks, do you?
Oh, that's right, Lansing already has. The Detroit News reports on the new booster seat tax:
The current law applies only to children younger than 4, but the new law will expand the age group and impact 500,000 additional children statewide.
It requires all children between ages 4 and 8 and less than 4 feet, 9 inches to be secured in a booster seat while traveling in a motor vehicle.
Little Suzy might be big for her age at five feet tall and one-hundred-twenty pounds but she doesn't turn 9 until this coming November. Booster seat time. But hey, on the upside, schools out for the summer so she doesn't have to worry about public ridicule for the next few months.
I'm actually a big fan of the booster seat. I remember rocking one myself when I was younger. When I was, like, five. I'm just thanking the universe that this law wasn't in effect fifteen years ago. I'm not skinny but I am slim and I was definitely late in getting that big teen-aged growth spurt. I may be six feet tall now but to put things into perspective, I was 5'2" after my junior year in high school. I don't think I hit 4'9" until 8th grade.
That wouldn't have been socially awkward at all, rolling up to Riverside Junior High for the first day of 8th grade, waiting for my dad to come around the side of the van to unbuckle my booster seat? But this isn't about things like social development and self esteem. No, no, no. What's important is that we tell parents how to raise their children and hit them square in the wallet to drive home our point.
I took the liberty of jumping online recently and rummaging through the booster seat listings on Target.com. After scanning through dozens of listings I finally found one super-economy option at $19.99 plus tax. The average booster seat is between $80 and $120. But let's pretend everyone goes the economy route.
We're talking about a $10 million booster seat tax specifically on Michigan moms and dads already struggling to support their young families. Of course with the average booster seat option running four to six times that rate we're talking major cash.
Exactly the sort of fancy new policy we need in a state with a nations-worst 8.5% unemployment rate. A state that lost over 50,000 jobs last month alone. How, pray-tell, are folks supposed to afford an extra industrial sized booster seat for their linebacker of an eight year old son if they don't have a job? That question gets even tougher if you're in the Detroit area (the bulk of the state's residents are) what with this report buried in today's Ivory Tower:
More sobering, however, is this statistic: 25% of property owners in Wayne County are delinquent in paying their taxes.
With all of these fancy new spending requirements folks in a bind should write their state Representative and ask him or her to choose for them, is it going to be food for the week, paying their taxes or a fancy new booster seat?
I know, I know, I'm cold and callous and am ignoring the real motivation behind this new multi-million dollar tax hike. It's all about the children. Specifically about protecting the children from horrible accidents. But I'm curious... what's a kid supposed to do if he rides the bus to school? I mean, he could carry his booster seat with him to the bus stop but how is he going to strap it in if there aren't even any seatbelts on the big yellow people-mover? (Just saying.)
Knowing Andy Dillon's tax hike caucus and their penchant for economic destruction I probably shouldn't even mention this as an option but they cooooould have the Michigan State Police pull the buses over and then write the driver a $65 ticket for ever kid not buckled in... which would be all of them... since there aren't any seatbelts on the buses. Talk about charging up the state's cash flow!
I wasn't 4'9" until I was 14 years old and a sophomore in high school... I had a very late growth spurt, shall we say. Needless to say, I would not have been thrilled with such legislation back then.
On a more general note, doesn't the State Police have anything better to do than this? Downtown Detroit comes to mind...
"Once within the maw of Leviathan, degree of digestion is irrelevant." - Michael Fisk
Folks, please note the "and" in the law; it's not an "or". That means that a child under 4'9" also has to be aged 8 or younger to be required to ride in a booster seat. I've become very careful about searching for those "and"s because one of my kids is a giant. We had real problems complying with the law here when she was under one and still required to sit in a rear facing car seat -- she wouldn't fit and practically had to have her knees bent up under her nose!
Not to say I'm excited about the change in the law -- I'm not. California's been threatening to do the same thing.
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"'You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,' said Aslan. 'And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.'" -- C.S. Lewis' "Prince Caspian"
One of my daughter's best friends is barely 4'10" and she didn't hit that height until after she turned 13. Shoot my oldest child would have been using hers until 6th grade and a boy in her grade probably would have been riding in his in 8th grade, but he still hasn't topped 5' yet.
I am so sure every 12 and 13 year old out there wants to use a booster seat in the car.
I am all for parents being safe, and making the right decisions for their kids. but at some point it needs to be up to the parent as to when their kids stop using the seats.