Insider Intelligence

Next week, State Senator-elect Ian Conyers (D-Detroit) will take the oath of office.  He won the special election earlier this month to complete the term of former Senator Virgil Smith (D-Detroit) who resigned from office in April.  He will need to run for a full, four-year term in November 2018.  “Congratulations to Senator-elect Conyers.  He […]

On Thursday the Senate passed two bills reforming the state’s energy market.  Proponents of the package state that it will increase reliability for consumers.  Also, in order to get Democratic support for the package, the bill sponsors amended the language to increase the requirement for renewable energy to 15% by 2022.  However, while the bill […]

This week, the Joint Committee of the Flint Water Emergency issued their final report.  Prior to issuing the report, the committee held six hearing and heard testimony from over sixty participants and stakeholders.  The final report details thirty-six policy proposals for consideration by the Legislature, fourteen of those are short-term goals.  Currently there is legislation […]

On Thursday, the Senate passed a package of bills repealing the Michigan Health Insurance Claims Assessment (HICA) tax.  HICA is a tax on health insurance claims paid by both individual policy holders and businesses who offer health care insurance to employees.  The tax was originally enacted to help pay the state’s portion of Medicaid, but […]

This week, the House passed a ten-bill package creating the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA) which would include certain records from the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and the legislature under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  The package would mirror existing FOIA rules and processes, however it prevents the judiciary from getting involved […]

This week, the House and Senate approved of legislation aimed at improving reading proficiency in kindergarten through third-grade students.  House Bill 4822 was first introduced by Representative Amanda Price (R-Park Township) in August 2015.  “Since its introduction, the House and Senate Education Committees heard hours of testimony, the content of the legislation has been extensively […]

On Thursday, the Senate passed a four-bill bipartisan package of legislation dealing with autonomous vehicles.  The legislation would allow autonomous vehicles on streets and highways throughout the state.  Along with setting up regulatory framework, it creates the Michigan Council of Future Mobility that would be tasked with providing policy recommendations on an annual basis.  The […]

This week, the Senate Natural Resources Committee announced they will hold an advice and consent hearing on September 7.  The hearing will be for Heidi Grether, the newly appointed director of the Department of Environmental Quality.  Governor Rick Snyder appointed Ms. Grether in July (see previous article) and the appointment is subject to the advice […]