Insider Intelligence

On Tuesday, May 24, Governor Rick Snyder issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Energy Emergency due to the shutdown of a fuel pipeline in Wisconsin and an unplanned outage of the Marathon refinery in Detroit heading into the holiday weekend.  The order suspends state and federal regulations related to hours-of-service for motor carriers […]

This week, the Senate Michigan Competitiveness Committee reported a package of bills that would eliminate the Health Insurance Claims Assessment (HICA).  HICA is a Use Tax on paid health claims, with a few exceptions, and was implemented to provide revenue for the Medicaid program.  However, the revenue from the assessment failed to meet the projected […]

The first conference committee met on Thursday and unanimously approved the Community Colleges budget for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year.  The conference committee approved increasing funding by an average 1.4%, which is 1.0% lower than Governor Rick Snyder called for in his budget announcement in February.  The additional funding will vary amongst colleges, ranging from 1.1% […]

This week, Senator Margaret O’Brien (R-Portage) introduced legislation that would recognize colleges and universities for setting and achieving environmental sustainability goals.  The bill would establish the Green College and University Advisory Council within the Department of Environmental Quality.  The council would recognize higher education institutions for their sustainability efforts on an annual basis.  Additionally, the […]

Last Friday, by Executive Order, Governor Rick Snyder created the Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board.  The purpose of the board is to develop a long-term, statewide strategy to help prevent lead exposure from all sources.  The twelve-member board will include experts in the prevention and mitigation of child lead poisoning, and may include representatives from […]

On Thursday, following a request by Attorney General Bill Schuette, Governor Rick Snyder requested that the internal investigation into the Flint water crisis be placed on hold.    According to the Attorney General and Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, the investigations may cause an obstruction to the criminal investigation.  Following their request, the Governor asked the […]

MLC offices will be closed on Monday, May 30 in observance of Memorial Day. The House and Senate are scheduled to hold session Tuesday – Thursday, however Thursday is tentative. The annual Detroit Regional Chamber Policy Conference is being held Tuesday, May 31 – Friday, June 3, on Mackinac Island.

Last Friday, Governor Rick Snyder issued an executive directive calling for increased collaborations on infrastructure projects.  Under the directive, the Director of the Department of Transportation is charged with improving the coordination of infrastructure installation, repair, or replacement in conjunction with road infrastructure.  It also calls on the Director to work with local government and […]