Inside 208

The FCC has released a Notice of Inquiry that “solicits data, information, and comment on the state of competition in the delivery of video programming for the Commission’s Fifteenth Report.”  The goal of the inquiry is “to enhance [the Commission’s] analysis of competitive conditions, better understand the implications for the [...]

More than a dozen Michigan Municipal League members, supporters and staff attended a press conference Wednesday to announce a legal challenge to a radical and controversial constitutional amendment ballot proposal. (Watch a video of the event, read the press release and sign up to join the effort. View more photos on flickr.) [...]

Yesterday, the Michigan Senate passed the package of blight bills (SB 1096-1100) that would give communities additional tools to address blight. The bills now go to the House for consideration.An amendment was added on the Senate floor to SB 1096 that we are still assessing. It says that a bank/credit [...]

Today, the Senate Economic Development Committee passed the substitute for SB 1210 (SB 1210 S-1.pdf (179.65 kb). Because we received the bill last night and did not have enough time to get feedback from our members, I testified today simply saying we had no position on the bill.  We do [...]

Senator Dave Robertson (R-Grand Blanc) has introduced SB 1168, a bill that would make multiple changes to the Michigan housing law. It would limit both registration fees and inspection fees for rental inspections as well as change the timeline for inspections to not less than 6 years but no longer than [...]

SB 1210, a bill to make changes to the current Brownfield program, will be taken up in the Senate Economic Development committee Wednesday morning at 10 am.  The initial reason for this bill was to eliminate the sunset on the Brownfield program and this resulted in a series of workgroups [...]

Yesterday Representatives Hugh Crawford (Novi) and Harold Haugh (Roseville) announced that they will be heading up a new four-person House workgroup to look at the state’s fireworks law.  The workgroup is expected to look at a few issues including reducing the types of fireworks available and limiting the dates that they [...]

A message from the League’s Arnold Weinfeld:The Michigan Municipal League is participating in a new coalition,  Defend Michigan Democracy, and is encouraging our members to get involved as well. We are simply asking you to go to www.defendingmidemocracy.com and join the effort to defend the constitutional principle of majority rule, by [...]

The Michigan Municipal League did well on Tuesday, with several of our members and former members who are running for the House of Representatives scoring victories.  We had eight members who came through contested primaries to earn their party nomination for the November 6th general election.  We also had three members [...]

Postcard that went to Michigan House candidates. Download it. The Replace Don’t Erase coalition, which includes the Michigan Municipal League and other organizations, has launched a campaign to give all candidates for the state House and Senate the facts about legislation that would give the Governor and Legislature new power to take [...]