House Bill 4837: Restrict outside groups’ access to state voter database: Passed 75 to 33 in the House

To restrict access to the state's qualified voter file (QVF) database to the Secretary of State office, other election officials it authorizes, local and county election clerks, and state employees or vendors who do maintenance and security work on the QVF. The bill would remove a provision authorizing access by a “designated voter registration agency.” Twenty Democrats joined all Republicans in voting 'yes' on this and House Bill 4838.

House Bill 4838: Ban election day internet connections to state poll books: Passed 77 to 31 in the House

To prohibit the electronic poll book at each election precinct from being connected to the internet on election day until its votes have been tabulated. It would also prohibit connecting an electronic voting system to the internet until after the votes are counted, and then only to upload the results to the appropriate clerk.

House Bill 4523: Authorize railroad crossing improvement grants: Passed 104 to 4 in the House

To require the Department of Transportation to develop parameters for prioritizing the funding of grant applications for "grade separation projects” (road and street railroad crossing improvements) from a segregated state account proposed for this by House Bill 4524, which also passed. House Bill 4522 proposes allocating $30 million for this but has not advanced.

House Bill 4719: Revise processing of convict upon “life without parole” murder conviction: Passed 100 to 8 in the House

To establish that an individual convicted of a murder that's subject to mandatory life-with-no-parole provisions must be turned over to the state Department of Corrections for incarceration in a state prison immediately following conviction and before sentencing, rather than left in a local jail at county expense while paperwork is processed.

House Bill 4712: Retroactively grant potential cash subsidies to particular developer: Passed 87 to 21 in the House

To retroactively make a particular developer’s project eligible for “refundable” state business tax credits under a suspended program that authorized actual cash payments from the state treasury to a relative handful of companies and developers approved by state officials. The bill would also allow the developer to "shuffle" the credits/subsidies he was granted between two separate projects in a way that maximizes how much he gets. The House Fiscal Agency estimates this will result in $12.8 million in either state revenue, or in actual cash disbursements to this developer. The 17 Republicans opposing the bill were joined by four Democrats.

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.