Michigan Democrats are celebrating a record $82 billion budget for 2024 that Republicans say is wasteful and unsustainable without future tax hikes.
It’s the first budget crafted by a Democrat political trifecta in 40 years, which includes rollbacks of the state’s retirement tax on seniors and quintupled the Working Families Tax Credit.
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Michigan Democratic lawmakers authorized taxpayer funding for a Chinese-backed project Thursday, prompting criticism from state residents at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Lawmakers approved $175 million in public funding for Gotion to construct an electric vehicle battery factory in Big Rapids, Michigan. However, the public expressed worries due to China-based parent company Gotion High-Tech having corporate bylaws establishing a Communist Party of China (CCP) Committee within the company; every committee Republican and three Democrats voted against it, but the measure passed with a 10-9 vote.
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After Michigan Republican senators blocked their Democrat counterparts’ plan to send state taxpayers $180 inflation-relief checks, Democrats stripped two lawmakers of their committee assignments.
Democrats relieved Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, of his leadership position, and removed Bellino and Sen. Dan Lauwers, R-Brockway Township, from their committee assignments for voting against House Bill 4001 and blocking the ability to issue the $180 checks.
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Michigan Democrats filed bills aiming to fulfill a 40-year pending wishlist, which include restoring the prevailing wage and repealing right to work.
Other bills filed include repealing the retirement tax, boosting the earned income tax credit, and repealing the 1931 abortion ban despite a constitutional amendment voiding the law.
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As Michigan Democrats holding a political trifecta aim to regulate charter schools, data from the graduating class of 2021 show that the top eight open-enrollment high schools for college enrollment in Detroit are all charter schools.
Researchers from Grand Valley State University’s Charter Schools Office analyzed which high schools had the most students enrolling in college within six months of graduation.
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Come January, Democratic majorities in Lansing will try to repeal right-to-work – Republicans’ flagship policy adopted when they controlled the Legislature and governor’s office.
Next week will mark the 10th anniversary of Michigan passing its right-to-work law. In short, the law says that nobody can be required to pay dues or fees to a union to hold a job.
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Lansing’s crop of newly elected and reelected officials is mostly mum on the fate of Line 5, or more specifically, the five-mile dual pipeline spanning the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac.
The 2022 midterm election delivered majorities for Michigan Democrats in the state House and Senate, and the governor’s office – a trifecta for the first time in 40 years. State public policies and litigations could be significantly impacted by both chambers and the reelection of two key Democrats, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel.
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Police dash camera video of the recent arrest of state Rep. Jewell Jones (D-MI-11) shows the drunken 25-year-old resisting arrest, and invoking the name of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) as a threat to the arresting officers.
In the video, police attempt to obtain Jones’ driver’s license, which he refuses to give them. Eventually, he begins struggling with the two arresting officers, ending up detained in the grass on the side of I-96.
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Michigan House Democrats have introduced a bill that would ban the practice of declawing cats in the state.
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A Michigan Democrat filed a sexual harassment complaint Tuesday against State Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Township) just a week after he was accused of making “sexist” and “belittling” comments towards a female reporter.
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