In This Edition - Legislative Update
- From Our Office
- In The News
- In-District Work
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Last week, the Michigan Senate voted on an extensive number of bills:
- Senate Bill 308: Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to establish and require signature and verification training for county, city, and township clerks. It also requires the SOS to promulgate incredibly restrictive rules establishing an objective signature verification process that is to be used in training all county, city, and township clerks.
- Passed the Michigan Senate 20-15. Sen. McMorrow is opposed to this bill.
- House Bill 4305: would remove the requirement that attendance numbers at fundraising events be included in campaign statements.
- Passed the Michigan Senate 24-11.
- Senate Bill 700: Revises the State Employees’ Retirement System to require layered amortization for future unfunded accrued liabilities, reduce the timeframe for reconciliation, require the use of the most recent mortality tables and revise the cap for the assumed rate of return on investments.
- Passed the Michigan Senate 35-0.
- Senate Bill 671: Amends the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act by:
- Allowing the owner or developer of a transformation brownfield project site to elect to use a safe harbor method of calculating income tax capture revenue and withholding tax capture revenue as prescribed in the bill.
- Allowing the Michigan Strategic Fund to waive a requirement that a transformation brownfield plan is for mixed-use development if the plan resulted in certain levels of capital investment depending on the population size of the municipality in which the plan would be located.
- Increasing income tax capture percentage on residential projects that incorporate affordable/workforce housing.
- Removing the restriction on combining Transformational Brownfield Plans with other resources.
- Passed the Michigan Senate 28-7. Sen. McMorrow supports this bill.
- House Bill 4711: Amends the Liquor Control Code to permit a private entity to obtain a license for the sale of alcohol on the premises of a baseball stadium owned by Eastern Michigan University or Oakland University if either were leased or subleased during the summer.
- Passed the Michigan Senate 35-0. Sen. McMorrow supports this bill.
- House Bills 4171 & 4172: Amend the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act.
- HB 4171: Extends the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act to extend to forest fire officers and fire/crash rescue officers a presumption under the act (which currently applies to firefighters) that certain cancers were caused by exposure to hazards on the job.
- HB 4172: Amends the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act to do all of the following: Beginning January 1, 2022, allow eligible part-time, paid on-call, and volunteer firefighters and retired full-time, part-time, paid on-call, and volunteer firefighters to seek benefits from the First Responder Presumed Coverage Fund created under the act.
- Both passed the Michigan Senate 35-0.
FROM OUR OFFICE - Reproductive Health Act: Last week, the Progressive Women’s Caucus was joined by representatives of Planned Parenthood and the ACLU for the introduction of the Michigan Reproductive Health Act, which would guarantee individuals’ freedom to make decisions about their own reproductive health, including safe and legal access to abortion.
- Climate Resiliency Plan: Last week, Democratic state senators and representatives introduced legislation to help Michiganders affected by extreme, more frequent weather events caused by climate change. Massive storms, flooding, and power outages over the past few years have illustrated a clear need for investments in jobs, weatherization, and infrastructure upgrades, and bold policy changes in order to better protect Michigan residents.
- Sen. McMorrow’s bill, Senate Bill 752, would require the Michigan Department of Transportation — before building any new state highway trunkline infrastructure — obtain a green infrastructure permit for the project from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, who would be tasked with the creation of such a program.
- On Wednesday, October 20, I had the privilege of attending the signing of Senate Bill 153 and House Bill 5267 to repeal the tampon tax in Michigan.
- I’ve championed this legislation alongside Sen. Winnie Brinks since taking office in 2019, and many other legislators have worke
d tirelessly over many more years to get these bills across the finish line.
- Sometimes, even the simplest, most commonsense solutions take time, and so many advocates, supporters, and legislators kept going right alongside us.
- While it’s a small saving per purchase, those taxes have historically added up over a lifetime for one half of Michigan’s population, and not the other. This is a small change with a BIG impact.
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