Insider Intelligence

The 2017 National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) Exchange has started in St. Louis.  The NASPO Exchange is an opportunity for vendors to meet and network with state procurement officials from around the country.  The event kicked-off on Sunday with an inspiring presentation from former NFL player and coach and ESPN personality, Herm Edwards.   […]

Below are some of the articles that the MLC lobby team has been reading this past week.  We hope you find them as interesting and useful as we do. Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do – These types of lists can do damage for several reasons, including; anecdotal evidence, non-transferable to other contexts, […]

A Q&A with Representative Kim LaSata who represents a portion of Berrien County.  She tells us why she chose to run for the legislature, what party attributes she most identifies with, plus much more. In this week’s Five Things We’re Reading, we have articles on political holdovers, a look at Betsey DeVos’s alma matter, plus […]

This week, the House Michigan Competitiveness Committee reported a bipartisan bill package expanding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the executive branch and creating the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA) for the legislature.  LORA is modeled after FOIA and much of the same language found in FOIA, is in LORA.  The package does provide […]

According to numbers released this week by the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget, Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.2%.  The state’s workforce increased by 24,000 during the month, total employment increased by 18,000, and the number of unemployed increased by 6,000.  During January, the […]

This week, the House passed legislation introduced by Representative Aaron Miller (R-Sturgis) that would prevent state representatives and senators who resign from office from running in the special election called to fill their former seat.  According to the bill sponsor, the legislation is designed to clarify that when an elected official resigns or is removed […]

On Thursday, Representative Martin Howrylak (R-Troy) introduced legislation reducing the campaign contribution limit for Political Action Committees (PAC).  Under the proposal, there would be a reduction in the amount that an independent committee or PAC could contribute to a candidate in an election cycle, reducing the amount from ten times the individual contribution limit to […]

This week, Representative Tom Cochran (D-Mason) and Representative Kristy Pagan (D-Canton) introduced legislation restoring, then increasing, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  The EITC is a refundable tax credit available to low and middle-income individuals to offset taxes that are paid on wages.  In 2011, the EITC was reduced from 20% of the federal level […]