Michigan residents could claim a $100 tax credit for getting a COVID-19 vaccine and driver’s licenses would be extended under bills recently introduced in the Michigan Legislature. Those are just two of the bills members of the House and Senate introduced in June on topics ranging from meat substitutes to broadband internet access to budgets.
State of Michigan
The Michigan House passed a bill Thursday that would eliminate the extra $300 in federal unemployment benefits for Michigan residents.
The Senate passed three bills Wednesday that would make it more difficult for voters to vote absentee and at the ballot box if they aren’t able to present a state-issued photo ID, despite fierce objections from Democrats that the new rules would be especially harmful to vulnerable voters and communities of color.
Through a unanimous vote Tuesday, the state Senate passed more than $4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief aid to Michigan’s K-12 schools.
“We’re talking about corporate contributions that helped elect the legislators driving the effort and supporting the effort to restrict voting, limit voting, and change election outcomes,” Center for Political Accountability President Bruce Freed said. “This creates risk for companies today. You not only have investors but consumers who will change their buying patterns as a result of this. It has a reputational impact on a company, and it has an impact on company employee morale.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive Monday requiring the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to take action to prohibit the use of state and federal dollars for the practice of conversion therapy on minors.
Speaking from the Straits State Park in St. Ignace on Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her plan to put $250 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars toward “critical investments” in Michigan’s state parks and trails to increase recreation and tourism.
Michigan Advance’s David Hecker writes, “Michigan can and should be a place where every child, regardless of race or ZIP code, has the opportunity to get a quality public education that will set them on a path to success. But we’re not there yet, and it is incumbent on all of us to do the work necessary to strengthen public schools for all students, and specifically to ensure our classrooms are safe, empowering spaces for Black, Indigenous and other students of color.”
State Reps. Tenisha Yancey (D-Harper Woods), Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), and Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield) on Tuesday unveiled a plan to fight police misconduct.
A bill package of lobbying, financial disclosure and ethics reforms passed through the House with bipartisan support Wednesday. The 13 bills, House Bills 4680–4692, aim to close the revolving door for legislators and lobbyists, require lawmakers to disclose their financial information to a closed committee created by the Legislature, among other initiatives to raise the ethical standards in the Capitol.
U.S. House Democrats’ highway funding bill is poised to include roughly three out of five transportation projects submitted by members, as legislators vie for their share of federal dollars through the resurrected congressional earmarks process. Michigan is poised to receive $210 million spread over 68 projects throughout the state.
Police would be required to intervene if they see that excessive force is about to be used and schools would be prohibited from including the “1619 Project” in their curriculum under bills recently introduced in the Michigan Legislature. Those are just two of the bills members of the House and Senate introduced in May on topics ranging from police reforms to schools to guns.
A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week is being seen as a step in the right direction toward untangling complex jurisdictional issues that often result in crimes against Indigenous people going unaddressed in Michigan and elsewhere throughout the country. The case, United States v. Cooley, essentially upholds tribal law enforcement’s authority over non-Natives who commit crimes on tribal land. Previously, courts had employed patchwork enforcement of the power.
“Why are you talking to them?” Hank Millbourne remembers friends saying to him during the 1980s gay scene in Detroit about other gay men. “They have the package.”
Millbourne had only a passing idea of what the “package” was, but he was quickly taught the alleged telltale signs of it: darkened fingernails from using AZT, then the only approved treatment for HIV. In Black Americans, it had the odd side effect of turning some people’s fingernails dark black.
The Michigan Senate Elections Committee voted on three bills Wednesday that could reform voting procedures to mandate photo identification being presented when applying for an absentee ballot or casting a ballot.
Dozens of bills aimed at boosting ethics, transparency and financial disclosure laws have been introduced in the Legislature this year from both parties, with lawmakers making the case that their respective bills would give Michiganders the most access to state government.
U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne is pushing for tenants’ rights to extend to residents of manufactured housing communities to protect them from predatory rent hikes.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday her priorities for K-12 education that uses federal funds and a state surplus to close the equity gap for Michigan’s schools.