Should Michiganders Get First Choice of Campsites?

Steven Johnson, a state rep in the Michigan House. thinks you and your fellow resident Michigan campers should get first choice of campsites in Michigan state parks.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Rep. Johnson thinks Michigan residents should get to reserve state park campsites two weeks before the rest of the world. He says you and I partially fund the state parks with our tax dollars, so we should get first crack at them. Besides, he says (I'm paraphrasing here) there are plenty of other private and National Park campsites up for grabs for out-of-staters.

The Michigan DNR is actually OPPOSED to the bill. They say Michiganders already get 88% of the state campground reservations each season. According to Ron Olson, chief of the parks and recreation division of the DNR, he says they want to encourage out-of-state tourism and adds, "It would cost us a lot of extra management to do this because we couldn’t be sure if somebody was actually a resident.” 

The DNR says they've looked at 27 other states and none of them offer their residents an early reservation deal. On top of that, State Rep. Bill Sowerby, said, if this were to go into effect here, he's afraid Michiganders who go to state parks in Ohio or Wisconsin would face retaliation.

If there is a "Camper War", I'm confident Michigan will prevail.

What do you think? Here's the story.