Inside 208

This week House Tourism Committee took testimony on House Bill 4299 sponsored by Representative Bumstead. This legislation would allow for Counties, Townships, and Municipalities, to adopt ordinances to allow for the use of ORVs on roads under their jurisdiction. The League supports this bill in concept but is working with [...]

The Michigan Municipal League would like to encourage members to attend town hall meetings on transportation funding in your area. This issue remains front and center in the legislature and we have an opportunity to help shape the conversation. It is important that individual legislators hear from you on this [...]

This week the House of Representatives spent a majority of their time amending and passing budget bills. The legislature has yet to come to an agreement on how to raise the $1.2 billion in new funding that Governor Snyder has requested for roads. Representative Pat Summerville was able to pass [...]

This afternoon the House reported the omnibus budget that includes EVIP language. The House did not recommend an increase in EVIP funding. In addition yesterday they removed the language penalizing those communities who had settled contracts between December 2012 and March 28, 2013 before right to work went into effect. [...]

Yesterday afternoon (April 23, 2013) on the House floor language was removed that would penalize communities who settled contracts between December 12, 2012 and March 28, 2013 before the right to work legislation went into effect. The idea of the language was to penalize communities who “circumvent” right to work. [...]

The legislature is one again considering cancer presumption legislation. After being vetoed by Governor Engler in 1998 cancer presumption has returned in some form each legislative session. Yesterday afternoon the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 211, a bill that provides for a cancer presumption for firefighters. The League testified [...]

In a call with the League today, an official from the White House confirmed that the federal government will be reducing their committed payments on interest of the Build America Bonds. They are expecting the reductions to be about 9% below their original committment. These would apply across the board [...]

Late yesterday afternoon the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the general government budget including the 4.8% increase as recommended by the subcommittee. The Senate budget does NOT include the language we oppose in the House budget with penalties for settling contracts before right to work went into effect and additional posting [...]

Yesterday the House Local Government Committee continued a discussion regarding online legal notices. Last week the committee heard testimony from various groups including the League. For several years the League has been trying to pass legislation that would allow communities to publish legal notices online. The committee took up several [...]

Yesterday morning the House Tourism Committee considered HB 4335, a bill that would allow dogs on restaurant patios. The legislation also allows a local unit of goverment to pass more stringent ordinances. Vibrant communities across the country allow dogs on patios outside of restaurants. This bill allows local control while [...]