Insider Intelligence

A package of legislation was introduced this week by members of the House Democratic Caucus abolishing the Michigan Capitol Commission. Their plan would transfer the authority from the Commission to the Legislative Council, a bipartisan, bicameral body of legislators. Members on the Council are appointed by the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, […]

The House and Senate are scheduled to hold their typical Tuesday – Thursday session schedule. The Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday, September 30, to hear testimony from Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive.

Terms and Conditions are the guides to performance and legality of a contract.  This area of negotiations is exceptionally challenging in public procurement.  For the most part, in the public sector, contracts are written to protect the public entity, not the vendor.   This becomes a challenge for some companies attempting to do work in the […]

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. Start Stopping Faster – How can you get better at stopping projects and businesses that aren’t performing well? Why Building a Muscle for Uncertainty is the […]

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Stamas (R-Midland), House Appropriations Committee Chairman Shane Hernandez (R-Port Huron), and State Budget Director Chris Kolb announced they have reached an agreement on the spending parameters for the state’s 2021 Fiscal Year budget. Despite the impact of the pandemic on the state’s economy and budget, under the agreement there won’t […]

The Department of Transportation closed on an $800 million bond issue, marking the first installment in Governor Whitmer’s $3.5 billion Rebuilding Michigan program. The bonds will cover the cost of rebuilding some of the state’s most highly traveled freeways. The State Transportation Commission authorized the sale of $3.5 billion in bonds in January, backed by […]

The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was lawfully permitted to send out unsolicited absentee voter ballot applications to registered voters. In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court ruled that state law and the Michigan Constitution allow Secretary Benson to mail the applications, as the Michigan […]

The Senate approved of legislation aimed at helping local clerks process the increased number of absentee ballots expected in November. Introduced by Senator Ruth Johnson (R-Holly), the legislation would allow clerks or cities or townships with populations of at least 25,000 people to perform certain preprocessing activities of absentee ballots prior to this year’s November […]