August 12 MichiganVotes.org Weekly Roll Call Report

MichiganVotes.org sends a weekly report to newspapers and TV stations around the state showing how state legislators in their service area voted on the most important or interesting bills of the past week. Because the legislature did not meet this week, rather than roll call vote results this report presents a sampling of recently proposed state laws.

Senate Bill 567: Create another corporate subsidy program for particular developers
Introduced by Sen. Mike Kowall (R), to authorize cash subsidies of up to 25 percent of a project’s cost, up to $10 million each, for developers who create “community revitalization” developments meeting a broad definition contained in the bill. Essentially, the political appointees on the board of the state government's “Michigan Strategic Fund” would have extensive discretion to hand out these subsidies to particular developers as they see fit. The bill also authorizes subsidized loans. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

Senate Bill 570: Allow certain log wall construction
Introduced by Sen. Michael Green (R), to explicitly allow residential construction containing log walls if they meet requirements specified in the bill, including minimum average thickness of 5 inches, comply with “International Code Council standard ICC 400-2007,” and the “area weighted average u-factor for fenestration products in the log walls is a maximum of 0.31”.Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 4869: Ban employees using public school resources to lobby and politick
Introduced by Rep. Kenneth Horn (R), to require school districts to adopt policies that prohibit employees from using school resources or students for lobbying and other political activities. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 4870: Ban too-early millage renewal elections
Introduced by Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D), to prohibit a local government from placing a property tax millage renewal on the ballot more than 18 months before the expiration of the current tax. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 4872: Penalize failure to report missing or dead child
Introduced by Rep. Thomas Hooker (R), to authorize penalties of up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for failing to report to law enforcement agencies in a timely manner that a child in a person’s care is missing or has died. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 4874: Revise Detroit powers population threshold
Introduced by Rep. Shanelle Jackson (D), to revise the population threshold in a law that allows Detroit to engage in certain borrowing, and to impose neighborhood property taxes to pay private contractors for snow removal, mosquito abatement, and security services. The Michigan constitution prohibits passing “local acts” with less than a two thirds majority vote in the House and Senate, so the legislature has circumvented this by granting certain privileges or exemptions to “a city with a population greater than 1 million,” later revised to 900,000, and then 750,000. This bill changes that to 600,000. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 4878: Screen welfare applicants for truancy scofflaws
Introduced by Rep. Deb Shaughnessy (R), to require a person who applies for welfare and who has a school age child to sign an affidavit affirming the child is not a truant, and authorizing the state welfare agency to confirm this by checking school attendance records. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

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

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