With the Legislature holding intermittent sessions during the general election campaign season, the Roll Call Report completes its review of key votes from the 2017-2018 session.

Senate Bill 897, Impose work requirement on able-bodied Medicaid recipients: Passed 26 to 11 in the Senate on April 19, 2018

To require state welfare officials to seek federal permission to allow requiring able-bodied individuals enrolled in the the federal health care law's Medicaid expansion to work at least 80 hours a month for at least nine months a year, or be in school, job-training or volunteer work. The bill authorizes exceptions for a parent with children under age six, individuals getting disability benefits or above age 62, a disabled person's caretaker and more.

House Bill 4999, Ban local food and beverage taxes: Passed 101 to 7 in the House on October 5, 2017

To prohibit local governments and authorities from imposing a tax or fee on the manufacture, distribution, wholesaling or retail sale of food for immediate consumption or non-immediate consumption. Among other things this would prohibit local officials from imposing soda taxes.

House Bill 4716, Remove parental rights for female genital mutilation: Passed 89 to 16 in the House on September 14, 2017

To take away the parental rights of a parent who subjects a child to female genital mutilation. This would be in the same section of law that terminates parental rights for severe child abuse and molestation.

House Bill 4557, Authorize prison for bringing 26 cases of beer or wine into state: Passed 99 to 8 in the House on May 25, 2017

To authorize up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for bringing more than around 26 cases of wine or beer into the state without all the required licenses mandated by the state. Smaller quantities would be subject to 93 days in jail.

Senate Bill 652, Create environmental rules review committee: Passed 57 to 51 in the House on May 22, 2018

To create a state environmental rules review committee comprised of certain officials and representatives of specified interests including business, government and environmentalist groups, with the duty to make judgments on whether Department of Environmental Quality rulemaking plans meet reasonableness and other standards. Final decisions would belong to the governor, however.

Senate Bill 574, Let charter schools get some ISD enhancement millage money: Passed 23 to 14 in the Senate on October 18, 2017

To require revenue extracted by future regional enhancement property taxes that are levied by Intermediate School Districts and distributed to conventional public school districts to also be shared with public charter schools within the ISD's territory.

House Bill 5040, “Bad driver tax” repeal and amnesty: Passed 103 to 5 in the House on November 2, 2017

To repeal the very costly “driver responsibility fees” (“bad driver tax”) assessed for various traffic violations, and clear any outstanding liability on individuals subject to them. These levies were imposed in 2003 to avoid state spending cuts by increasing revenue collections.

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.