Michigan House Democrats passed budget bills totaling nearly $81 billion – larger than Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recommendation.
Republicans in the minority for the first time in 40 years decried the spending proposals as wasteful as Democrats said the budget would invest in all Michiganders.
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The Michigan House approved bills to allow physical therapists to practice in states that have entered a compact.
House Bills 4504 and 4505 aim to enter Michigan into the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact, which allows physical therapists to practice physical therapy in states within the compact without having to be licensed in each state.
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Michigan Democrats have regained the House after a Tuesday special election.
The wins give Democrats a 56-54 House majority from the victories of Peter Herzberg and Mai Xiong in the 13th and 25th state House districts.
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House Republican Leader Matt Hall urged House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, to pass reform to records requests during Sunshine Week, which celebrates government transparency.
Sunshine Week, observed this year from March 10-16, highlights the need for transparency and accountability at all levels of government.
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The Michigan House will be deadlocked 54-54 after two Democratic House members won local mayoral races.
After Reps. Lori Stone of Warren and Kevin Coleman of Westland won their respective mayoral races, House Democrats will still craft legislative agendas but won’t have the votes required to enact legislation without Republican votes until a special session is called to fill those seats.
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The Democrat-dominated Michigan House passed two sales and use tax bills critics say are unnecessary and will confuse business owners.
House Bills 4377 and 4378 passed on votes of 56-53. The bills cover prepared food either sold in a heated state or heated by the seller or that is two or more food ingredients that are mixed or combined by the seller for sale as a single item.
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The Michigan House approved six bills to boost union membership that critics say would prioritize union politics before the quality of education.
House Bill 4357 aims to allow school districts to deduct automatically union dues from teacher salaries.
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The Michigan House approved a trio of bills that aim to require hands-free cellphone use.
The goal is to reduce distracted driving and fatalities.
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The Michigan House on Tuesday voted to repeal right-to-work, reinstate the prevailing wage, and trash the state’s A-F grading system for public schools.
The Democrat-dominated House approved Senate Bill 34 on a vote of 65-52. The bill aims to allow unions to require workers to pay dues to a labor organization as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment. The Senate approved the bill last week to repeal the policy enacted in 2012 by former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
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The Michigan House approved a $1.3 billion spending bill with about half going to a planned Ford electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall.
The House voted 59-49 on House Bill 4016, which the Senate approved a day prior.
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Michigan House lawmakers voted 56-53 on House Bill 4001, which aims to provide some tax relief, but also block an automatic, permanent tax break for all Michiganders triggered by an influx of money in state coffers.
The package would increase the earned income tax credit from 6% to 30%, reduce taxes on public and private pensions, and possibly provide a $180 check to Michigan tax filers.
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Although she thinks it’s only a “start,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer applauded the bipartisan budget passed Thursday night by the Michigan House of Representatives.
The House voted to pass the budget before the July 1 deadline, and includes the governor’s proposal to implement the largest increase in K-12 public school spending in the state’s history. Whitmer’s office claims the $16.7 billion in school expenditures will “close the gap between the lowest- and highest-funded school districts for the first time since the goal was introduced in 1994.”
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Just 14 months after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Michigan House approved a bill that requires the government reimburse private businesses for COVID-19 fines based on restrictions that were found unconstitutional.
The vote was 74-34.
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The Michigan House unanimously passed a flurry of bipartisan bills seeking to reform the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by including the governor and legislature under the new Legislative Open Records Act (LORA).
The House passed the package during “Sunshine Week,” which celebrates government transparency, and after reporters used FOIA to expose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration gifting $253,000 in secret, taxpayer-funded severance packages.
The bill package is virtually identical to bills introduced in the 2015-16, 2017-8, and the 2019-20 legislative session other than technical changes and effective dates.
Those packages all failed.
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On Wednesday, the Michigan House passed over $4 billion of COVID-19 recovery spending that ties over $1 billion of the funding to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relinquishing the pandemic powers she’s held for nearly a year.
Federal funding comprises about $3.4 billion of the funds.
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The Michigan House and Senate Oversight Committees are assuming authority to issue subpoenas, administer oaths and examine books and records related to the 2020 election.
The committees immediately proceeded to issue subpoenas to election clerks in Detroit and Livonia. Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey and Livonia Clerk Susan Nash have until the end of business on Jan. 12 to turn over documents pertaining to their respective elections.
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The Michigan Senate voted to reject Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appointment of former Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell to lead the Natural Resources Commission last week.
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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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Michigan House Democrats have introduced a slate of bills to provide what they describe as “much-needed updates to the sexual education curriculum” taught in the state’s public schools.
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State Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a lower charge than she initially faced.
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A bill making its way through the Michigan House seeks to tighten the state’s definition of terrorism after a Lake Superior State University student was charged for posting a picture of his AR-15 on Snapchat.
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House Republicans are sponsoring a resolution that would declare Michigan a “Second Amendment sanctuary state.”
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Michigan Republicans said they are committed to working with the governor to avoid more budget drama, but expressed a number of concerns with her new budget proposal.
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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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A Michigan bill that would require every executive branch department and division to post the salary and benefit information of their employees unanimously cleared its first hurdle Thursday. House Bill 5015 easily cleared the House Oversight Committee and is now on its way to the House Ways and Means Committee for consideration. Under the bill, the Department of Technology, Management and Budget would be required to make public on the state’s website the “function, contact, and employee salary information for each executive branch department and each major division or sub-unit within the department.” “This information must be accessible to the public at no cost,” the bill adds. According to Rep. Ryan Berman (R-Commerce Township), sponsor of the bill, residents seeking to obtain salary information “must go through a burdensome Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process in order to receive it.” “Having this information readily available up front removes the response time and effort needed to fulfill these individual requests and will free up government departments to serve people more efficiently,” he said in a statement. Berman believes that his bill would “make state government more accountable to the taxpayers who fund it,” pointing out that the Michigan House already…
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Michigan’s state income tax was raised in 2007 in what was supposed to be a temporary fix, but it ended up being permanent. More than a decade later, one Republican state lawmaker plans to change that.
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The Michigan Bureau of Elections announced Friday that a group seeking to recall Rep. Larry Inman (R-Grand Traverse County) from office did not submit enough valid signatures, officially ending the months-long effort.
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The new self-service stations being installed across Michigan will allow customers to complete their transactions in Spanish or Arabic, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced.
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