August 17, 2012, MichiganVotes.org Weekly Roll Call

Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting

Senate Bill 1040, Revise school pension system: Passed 21 to 16 in the Senate
To no longer provide post-retirement health benefits to new school employees, and instead give them a 401(k) contribution equal to 2 percent of their salary. Also, current retirees who are over age 65 on Jan. 1, 2013 would have to contribute 20 percent to the cost of these health benefits, up from 10 percent now. The bill would also authorize “prefunding” these retiree health benefits (despite them being optional and not an enforceable obligation on the state). In addition, current school employees would have to contribute more toward their pensions, or else receive benefits calculated under a less generous formula. The original Senate-passed provision to “close” the school pension system to new hires was not adopted.

Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"

Senate Bill 1099, Authorize additional “administrative hearing bureau” penalties : Passed 36 to 1 in the Senate
To allow a local government to garnish the wages of a property owner who has failed to pay fines imposed by “administrative hearing bureaus” that cities in Wayne County are allowed to create for enforcing property "blight” violations outside of clogged district courts. Other bills in this package would prohibit an owner from getting a building permit or zoning variance, and authorize additional civil and criminal penalties on a property owner.

Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"

House Bill 4907, Revise candidate filing deadlines to prevent party-switch gamesmanship: Passed 106 to 0 in the House
To set the reelection filing deadline for incumbent legislators (and some other offices) to a date two weeks before the deadline for challengers. If a lone challenger from the other party withdraws, the non-incumbent filing deadline would be extended an additional two days after the regular withdrawal deadline. This is in response to the situation of Rep. Roy Schmidt, who switched parties on the filing deadline date, leaving no Democratic challenger for this legislative district. The bill would also allow local party officials to pick a congressional candidate if a seat becomes vacant soon before the general election, saving the cost of a special primary election. It also extends the deadline for receipt of military and overseas absentee ballots if the local clerk sent these out late.

Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"

Senate Bill 1040, Revise school pension system: Passed 57 to 48 in the House
The final House vote on the school pension system bill described above. The bill made significant revisions to the system, but much less than the one in the original Senate-passed version.

Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"

Interested in a cumulative list of all weekly Roll Call Report Votes for 2012?

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.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.