Gone Are The Days Drinking From The Hose

I remember the time honored tradition of playing outside all day in the summer and running to either your hose or a friends hose to drink water.

Well the fact that children playing outside has gone by the wayside so has drinking from the hose.  Here is a test, ask your child when the last time they drank water from a hose and see what happens.  My guess they will look at you funny and think something is wrong with you and some will ask you what is a hose.

New legislation has just been introduced in both chambers of Michigan’s Legislature which could ensure kids have safe drinking water at schools and daycare.  The bills have bipartisan support with Democrat Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich and Democrat State Representative Sheldon Neeley, both from Flint, and Republican Senator Curt VanderWall, and Republican State Representative Lynn Afendoulis sponsoring the bills.

The bills are House bill 5104 and Senate Bill 590 were both referred to their respective committees to hash out the details and possibly be voted on.

These bills would make all Michigan schools and day care centers be required to provide filtered water at fountains or filling stations.

How will these bills be paid for, well they have not quite figured that out yet.  According to reporting by MLive the office of Senate Minority leader Ananich said that the Senate bill would establish a School and Childcare Clean Drinking Water Fund in the state Department of Treasury.  That fund would only help pay for the acquisition and installation of filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered faucet devices at low-income child care centers and schools.  Why only low income schools, those schools receive the highest amount of tax dollars from the people who actually pay state income taxes?

I love it when these elected politicians write bills with no thought or suggestions on how to pay for what they want.  They actually make determining how to pay for their wishes part of the process of getting their bills passed.  I understand that the budgeting process could change how these bills are funded but could you at least give us a thought on how you think they should be funded.

Gone are the days of pushing the dirt, grass and spiders away from the end of the hose so you could quench your thirst for hose water.

The next question is when will they make it illegal to squirt someone with a hose from an unfiltered source.