MichiganVotes.org April 16 Weekly Roll Call Report

Every week MichiganVotes.org sends a report to newspapers and TV stations showing how just the state legislators in each publication's service area voted on the most important and/or interesting bills and amendments of the past seven days. The version shown here instead contains a link to the complete roll call tally in either the House or Senate. To find out who your state Senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state Representatives go here.

Senate Bill 1226, Senate state employee pension reform package, passed in the Senate (22 to 16)
To require state employees under the pre-1997 traditional "defined benefits" pension plan to pay an additional 3 percent of their salary into their pension fund. (State employees hired since 1997 have 401K-type "defined contribution" pensions.) The measure will save some $35 million in the next fiscal year and $304.5 million over 10 years. Senate majority Republicans failed to achieve a caucus consensus on an earlier version that would have saved around $104 million next year.

Complete Roll Call Vote Tally

Senate Bill 1227, Senate school employee pension reform package, passed in the Senate (22 to 16)
To require school employees to pay an additional 3 percent of their salary into their pension fund. This will save some $211 million in the next fiscal year, and $2.84 billion over 10 years. Senate majority Republicans failed to achieve a caucus consensus on an earlier version that would have saved around $480 million next year.

Complete Roll Call Vote Tally

Senate Bill 941, Establish arrest warrants welfare ban procedures, passed in the Senate (38 to 0)
To require the Department of Human Services to regularly review State Police information on outstanding arrest warrants. Under current law a person with an outstanding warrant is not allowed to collect welfare. The bill requires the state to create an automated database that cross-checks the appropriate lists.

Complete Roll Call Vote Tally 

House Bill 5783, Exempt college students from jury duty during school year, passed in the House (107 to 0)
To extend to college students the same automatic exemption from jury duty during the school year that applies to high school students who are old enough to serve on a jury (age 18).

 Complete Roll Call Vote Tally

SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit https://www.michiganvotes.org.

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