Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016

Contact:
John Mozena
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
313-460-7441

MIDLAND — The Michigan House Commerce and Trade Committee will hear comments tomorrow on three bills with significant implications for public school labor relations and the management of public works projects in Michigan.

• SB 279 prohibits public school employees from collecting credits toward their public pension if they leave their public job to do full-time private, union work.
• SB 280 would ban so-called “union release time,” when public school districts pay employees who leave their job to work on union matters.
• SB 627 would give state and local government agencies the power to enter into joint operating arrangements with a particular business for purposes of building transportation projects or health care or laboratory facilities. These “public-private partnerships” would benefit from government tax exemptions and the government agency’s power to impose property taxes, borrow, take private property using eminent domain, levy tolls and user fees and more.

If these bills move out of committee, they could go to the House for a full vote before the current legislative session ends this year. The Mackinac Center will have representatives testifying on behalf of SB 279 and 280 and who will be available for media interviews.

For more information on our position on infrastructure related to SB 627, please see https://www.mackinac.org/23055.

On pension spiking, see https://www.mackinac.org/21051.

For union release time, see https://www.mackinac.org/21722.

Media contact:

John Mozena
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
313-460-7441 (call or text)