Insider Intelligence

The State of Michigan Investment Board voted unanimously to divest the State of Michigan Retirement Systems (SMRS) pension plans from companies based in Russia and Belarus. The action comes after Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a letter on March 1 calling for a special meeting to divest from any institutions and companies based in Russia. They […]

The Michigan Coronavirus Racial Disparities Taskforce released recommendations for collaborative policy, programming, and systemic change to protect communities of color from the spread of COVID-19. The report, which provided a progress report on the taskforce’s short- and long-term goals, found that actions taken by the State in 2020 and 2021 helped reduce health-based racial disparities. […]

The House and Senate are scheduled to hold their typical Tuesday – Thursday session schedule. On Tuesday, March 15, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a joint hearing with the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a review of Michigan’s gas taxes, structure, pricing transparency, and projections. On March 15 at 7 p.m., Oakland County […]

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. Covid Can Shrink the Brain as Much as a Decade of Aging, Study Finds – New research is showing the devasting impact of Covid on the […]

Special primary elections were held in four open House districts. The legislature approved of legislation reducing the state’s income tax rate from 4.25% to 3.9%. The House passed legislation providing $1.5 billion in one-time funding to reduce debt and improve the finances of public employee retirement systems. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Directive 2022-2, directing […]

This week, the House voted to approve of Senate legislation reducing the state’s income tax rate from 4.25% to 3.9%.  The plan is similar to a House bill that was reported by the Appropriations Committee last week. In addition to the tax rate reduction, the bill lowers the eligibility age from 67 to 62 for […]

The House passed legislation providing $1.5 billion in one-time funding to reduce debt and improve the finances of public employee retirement systems. Most of the funding would go to pension plans for local governments and road commissions, with an additional $350 million to improve financing in the Michigan State Police retirement system. The bill was […]

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Directive 2022-2, directing the Department of Transportation to speed up pothole repairs on state trunkline highways. It calls on the department to use all available resources, including overtime pay and contracted services, to expedite repair of road surface, as well as ensure the public can easily report the location of […]