Insider Intelligence

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 […]

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 […]

This week, the House and Senate began naming members to serve on the conference committees for each of the budgets for the upcoming 2016-2017 Fiscal Year.  Both chambers have passed their own versions of the budgets and will now come together to work through their points of differences to reach an agreement.  Conference committees consist […]

This week was the filing deadline for candidates running for the vacant 4th Michigan Senate District seat, which was left vacant in April when former Senator Virgil Smith resigned from the seat.  Shortly thereafter his resignation, Governor Rick Snyder called for a special primary election to be held on August 2 and a special general […]

This week, the Joint Flint Water Public Health Emergency Select Committee held its final hearing.  After six hearings and hours of testimony, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tony Stamas (R-Midland), announced the committee would not hear any additional testimony.  However, the committee would remain through the end of session, but at this time he didn’t […]

This week, the Senate passed both omnibus budgets providing funding for the upcoming 2016-2017 Fiscal Year.  The legislature will continue their budget work throughout this month with the goal of having the budget finalized by mid-June.  The budget for K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities totals $16.1 billion, highlights of the budget are below: K-12 […]

This week, Senator John Proos, along with a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues, introduced a legislative package to reform, re-establish, and rebuild a criminal justice system that will focus on lowering recidivism and keep Michigan safe.  The bill package addresses several issues, including: Updating the Swift and Sure probation sanctioning program Expediting medical commutation hearings […]

This week, the Senate Education Committee reported a bill repealing Common Core State Standards in Michigan.  Under the legislation, the state’s current standards would be replaced with the Massachusetts pre-Common Core standards.  According to the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Senator Phil Pavlov (R-Saint Clair), Massachusetts is often praised as the best state for […]