Senate Bill 174: Mandate credit agency “security freeze”
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to require credit reporting agencies to honor a “security freeze” request made by a consumer or on behalf of a minor under age 16 or an incapacitated individual, which prohibits the release of information to a third party without prior express authorization from the consumer. The bill controls the prices the agencies may charge for this service.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673731
Senate Bill 235: Revise state-approved fire safety system inspector detail
Passed 107 to 2 in the House on October 16, 2013, to allow a person certified by the National Fire Protection Association or the International Code Council to be registered as a state-approved fire safety system inspector and plan reviewer.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673769
Senate Bill 307: Revise public safety special assessment tax detail
Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to revise details of the population threshold for requiring a city to get a vote of the people to levy special assessment property taxes for police and fire services, which are imposed over and above regular property taxes. This would mostly affect Saginaw but could affect other cities as well.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673728
Senate Bill 387: Include reserve and auxiliary law enforcement officers in workers comp
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to expand the state workers disability compensation system to include reserve and auxiliary law enforcement officers.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673732
Senate Bill 475: Establish trampoline court regulations
Passed 25 to 12 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to establish standards and regulations for trampoline courts and operators, and grant these businesses limited immunity from lawsuits if the proposed regulations are followed.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673730
Senate Bill 492: Revise kindergarten minimum age detail
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to extend to “schools of choice” students (who attend a public school outside the district to which they are assigned) a 2012 law that requires children to be age 5 by Sept. 1 to attend kindergarten, rather than by Dec. 1 under current law. The date change is phased-in over three years.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673733
Senate Bill 546: Revise public library board detail
Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate on October 16, 2013, to revise and update details of a law that governs the election (or appointment) and composition of local library boards of governors.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673729
House Bill 4394: Revise township annual meeting reestablishment procedures
Passed 108 to 0 in the House on October 16, 2013, to revise the procedures for a township to reestablish an annual meeting of voters, by moving the deadline for submitting a petition for this to at least 15 weeks before the next primary or general election. This is two weeks earlier than the current deadline.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673768
Senate Bill 312: Revise college scholarship “promise zone” criteria
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to revise a 2008 law authorizing “promise zone” tax increment financing authorities (TIFA) to subsidize college tuition for students in low educational attainment areas, by allowing these subsidies for vocational education or training; allowing an authority to also pay for books and supplies; and giving authorities more latitude in setting academic performance standards they may or may not require students to meet. The bill would also expand the power of an authority to reset the “base year” for determining its future tax increment “capture” amounts.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673820
Senate Bill 332: Exempt “natural fertilizer” from phosphate content restrictions
Passed 102 to 6 in the House on October 17, 2013, to exempt “natural fertilizer” from restrictions imposed by a 2010 law restricting spreading a fertilizer containing more than 0.5 percent of the plant nutrient “available phosphate” (p2o5) on a lawn, golf course or other grass.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673864
Senate Bill 358: Authorize certain manufacturing & mining electrician licensure exemptions
Passed 21 to 17 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to exclude certain work in manufacturing and mining operations, or at an “independent power producer” facility, from a state licensure mandate that prohibits an individual from earning a living as an electrician without a state license (which among other things requires at least four years of apprenticeship in which 8,000 hours of experience must be accumulated).
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673819
Senate Bill 476: Repeal auctioneer registration mandate
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to repeal a law that imposes a registration (licensure) mandate on auctioneers.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673821
Senate Bill 477: Repeal auctioneer registration mandate
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to repeal a law that imposes a registration (licensure) mandate on auctioneers. This bill repeals various fee mandates.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673822
Senate Bill 478: Repeal auctioneer registration mandate
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to revise references to snowmobile dealers in the state environmental law so as to reflect the provisions of Senate Bill 476, which would repeal a law that imposes a registration (licensure) mandate on auctioneers.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673823
Senate Bill 489: Revise “personal property tax” reform details
Passed 82 to 26 in the House on October 17, 2013, to revise details of a 2012 law that exempts from property tax up to $80,000 ($40,000 in “taxable value”) worth of tools and equipment owned or leased by a business in a particular jurisdiction. (This so-called “personal property tax” imposes annual property taxes on business tools and equipment.) The bill would empower local assessors to retroactively deny exemptions for the three past years; authorize criminal penalties for claiming the exemption on ineligible property; revise details of the definition of what property is eligible; revise procedures for claiming the exemption; impose new record-keeping requirements on businesses; and more. It is considered a “clean up” of provisions in that 2012 law.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673878
Senate Bill 490: Revise “personal property tax” reform details
Passed 81 to 27 in the House on October 17, 2013, to revise details of a 2012 law that gradually phases out a so-called “personal property tax” that imposes annual property taxes on tools and equipment owned by “industrial” firms. The bill would revise details of the definition of what property is taxable and what business operations are considered “industrial”.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673879
Senate Bill 494: Repeal licensure of “community planners”
Passed 26 to 12 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to repeal the registration mandate imposed on “community planners.” This bill repeals the registration, application, and examination fees, and a bill to be introduced later repeals the mandate itself.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673824
House Bill 4949: Unemployment insurance reform package
Passed 35 to 3 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to increase the potential sanctions for taking unemployment benefits to which a person is not entitled. However, the bill would require, rather than just permit, the state unemployment benefits agency to waive recovery of improperly paid benefits when the payment was not the recipient’s fault and repayment would be “contrary to equity and good conscience”.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673826
House Bill 4950: Unemployment insurance reform package
Passed 34 to 4 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to potentially increase the unemployment insurance assessments (payroll tax) on an employer who fails to provide a timely notice to the state unemployment agency that a person has been fired rather than laid off, and so is not eligible for benefits.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673827
House Bill 4951: Unemployment insurance reform package
Passed 35 to 3 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to revise the allocation of money recovered from unemployment benefit fraud investigations to various government funds.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673828
House Bill 4952: Halt unemployment benefits for failed drug test
Passed 28 to 10 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to make a person ineligible to collect unemployment benefits if a prospective employer requires a drug test as a condition of a job offer and the individual either refuses to take the test or fails it. The proposed law would “sunset” the drug testing one year after it goes into effect.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673829
House Bill 4953: Unemployment insurance reform package
Passed 35 to 3 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to potentially increase the unemployment payroll tax on an employer who fails to provide a timely notice to the state unemployment agency that a person has been fired, not laid off, and so is not eligible for benefits. This is a companion to House Bill 4950.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673830
House Bill 4954: Unemployment insurance reform package
Passed 35 to 3 in the Senate on October 17, 2013, to revise the allocation of money recovered from unemployment benefit fraud investigations to various government funds.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673831
House Bill 4966: Expand prisons’ access to the state’s criminal information database
Passed 107 to 0 in the House on October 17, 2013, to give the Department of Corrections access to non-public information in the state’s LEIN criminal information database for use “in the performance of their duties” rather than just for employee screening purposes.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673873
House Bill 4967: Expand prisons’ access to the state’s criminal information database
Passed 107 to 0 in the House on October 17, 2013, to give the Department of Corrections access to non-public information in the state’s LEIN criminal information database for use “in the performance of their duties” rather than just for employee screening purposes.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673875
House Bill 4968: Expand prisons’ access to the state’s criminal information database
Passed 107 to 0 in the House on October 17, 2013, to give the Department of Corrections access to non-public information in the state’s LEIN criminal information database for use “in the performance of their duties” rather than just for employee screening purposes.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673876
House Bill 4969: Expand prisons’ access to the state’s criminal information database
Passed 107 to 0 in the House on October 17, 2013, to give the Department of Corrections access to non-public information in the state’s LEIN criminal information database for use “in the performance of their duties” rather than just for employee screening purposes.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673874
House Bill 5048: Revise drunk or stoned doctor penalties
Passed 107 to 0 in the House on October 17, 2013, to revise the penalties for a health care professional practicing while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The bill would establish a maximum fine of $2,500 for second or subsequent offenses; under current law there is a minimum penalty of $1,000 (plus up to 180 days in jail) but no maximum fine (which is unusual in Michigan’s criminal code). The bill would also slightly expand access to non-public records of first offenses where the sentence was deferred if offender meets conditions and terms imposed by the court.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=673877