Senate Bill 44: Revise GOP presidential primary date
Passed 72 to 38 in the House on February 18, 2015, to require the Republican presidential primary election to be conducted on the third Tuesday in March, rather than on the fourth Tuesday in February as currently required. In 2016 this would be March 8.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705778
Senate Bill 45: Revise GOP presidential primary date
Passed 74 to 36 in the House on February 18, 2015, to allow the Republican presidential primary election to be conducted on the second Tuesday in March, even though under the state’s post-election consolidation rules, one of the four regular election dates is the fourth Tuesday in February.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705780
House Bill 4110: Revise school aid budget
Passed 62 to 48 in the House on February 18, 2015, to shift the sources of funding for the current fiscal year school aid budget to compensate for lower than expected balances in the state “general fund.” This is due to higher than expected payouts to corporations and developers who were granted selective “tax credit” deals by the previous administration. (The draw-down of this fund is happening despite state revenue collections actually rising faster than spending in the current year.) The bill also reduces school aid appropriations to reflect lower than expected public school enrollment figures in the current school year, and reduces some payments intended to reduce the amount of unfunded liabilities in the school employee defined benefit pension system.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705775
House Bill 4112: Revise current year state budget
The amendment failed by voice vote in the House on February 17, 2015, to strip out a provision cutting $12 million out of the $50 million previously appropriated for subsidies to film producers this year.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=167595
House Bill 4112: Revise current year state budget
Passed 66 to 44 in the House on February 18, 2015, to revise the current year state budget to reflect lower than expected welfare and Medicaid caseloads, and add additional spending in a number of areas due to increased federal and other revenues. Also, to reduce some state “general fund” spending to reflect lower than expected balances in this fund brought about by higher than expected payouts to corporations and developers who were granted selective “tax credit” deals by the previous administration. Among the cuts are $12 million out of the $50 million previously appropriated for subsidies to film producers this year. Finally, the bill adds $11.2 million to cover costs incurred by a statewide ballot initiative on May 5 that would increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent, and trigger additional tax increases that all told come to a $2 billion.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705776
Senate Bill 18: Clarify ownership for some Calhoun County landholders
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on February 19, 2015, to require the state to take actions that remove questions about the title to land held “under color of title” by a number of citizens of Clarence Township in Calhoun County, and convey clean titles to these owners.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705809
Senate Bill 19: Clarify ownership for some Calhoun County landholders
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on February 19, 2015, to establish that the property conveyances that would result from the proposal in Senate Bill 18 would not be subject to the Proposal A taxable value “bump up,” wherein the new basis for property tax assessments becomes the property’s state equalized value (market value) rather than its capped “taxable value”.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=705810