Senate Bill 49: Make government firearms ownership databases non-public information
Passed 36 to 2 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to establish that state databases containing information on licenses issued to individuals to purchase, carry, possess, or transport pistols are confidential and not subject to disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The bill was introduced after a New York newspaper published the names and addresses of gun owners it acquired from a state database (since then New York has also banned releasing this information).
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689269
Senate Bill 680: Exclude county road commissions as waterfront road end decision maker
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to clarify that cities, villages and townships rather than counties may exercise the authority granted by a 2012 law to permit a single seasonal public dock or wharf at a road end at an inland lake or stream. This applies unless a recorded deed, easement or other recorded dedication expressly provides otherwise.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689271
Senate Bill 834: Make government firearms ownership databases non-public information
Passed 36 to 2 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to establish that a firearms-related court order or disposition entered into the state’s Law Enforcement Information Network (LIEN) is not subject to disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). See Senate Bill 49.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689267
Senate Bill 878: Accommodate and regulate the “millionaire party” business
Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to revise the law governing charitable “millionaire party” gambling events that include casino games, in a manner that accommodates charities contracting-out operation of these fundraising events to a “charitable gaming service” that operates them for multiple charities at a single location, one event after another. The bill would establish a licensing regime covering both the charities and the companies that provide the gambling service, which would recognize a system that has evolved in which, on most days of the week, a person can go to a single location to gamble on casino-like games, with the proceeds going to a different charitable organization each day (or during different hours of the same day). Among other details the bill would permit charitable organizations to sponsor these events a maximum of 16 days a year, and permit them to be held at horse race tracks. The state Gaming Control Board had proposed a different regulatory regime that would restrict this practice rather than accommodate it.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689274
House Bill 4962: Mandate SIDS information distribution & parent acknowledgement
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to mandate that hospitals give mothers a copy of a pamphlet on the risk factors of sudden infant death syndrome and sudden unexpected infant death (SIDS and SUID). This would also apply to a health professional in charge of a birth or a newborn’s care outside of a hospital. The Department of Community Health would be responsible for producing the pamphlets and related material.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689272
House Bill 5277: Revise foreclosure restrictions
Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on April 24, 2014, to revise details of a 2013 law that made changes to the right of a mortgage foreclosure auction property buyer to monitor the property during the post-auction redemption period (during which a delinquent borrower can pay the loan in full to redeem the property). The bill would impose more restrictions on inspections by the buyer, require more notice before interior inspections, and offer more opportunities for the borrower to repair or correct damage before the buyer can claim immediate ownership rights.
See Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No” at http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=689270
Senate Bill 899: Allow local governments to transfer tax functions to county
Introduced by Sen. David Robertson (R) on April 22, 2014, to allow cities, townships and villages to enter agreements with counties to administer functions related to property tax collections.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164044
Senate Bill 900: Revise workers comp insurance detail
Introduced by Sen. Jack Brandenburg (R) on April 22, 2014, to give the state agency that oversees the injured workers compensation insurance system discretion to permit reimbursement for certain claims made after statutory deadlines have passed.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164045
Senate Bill 901: Establish rape kit evidence procedures and deadlines
Introduced by Sen. Bert Johnson (D) on April 22, 2014, to establish regulations, procedures and timetables with deadlines that law enforcement agencies and health care providers must follow when collecting and using sexual assault kit evidence.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164046
Senate Bill 902: Impose college admissions training mandate on high school counselors
Introduced by Sen. John Pappageorge (R) on April 22, 2014, to mandate that middle school and high school counselors must take and pass a separate 45-hour course on the college admissions process and counseling, in addition to other existing licensure requirements.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164047
Senate Bill 903: Authorize bone marrow transplant fundraising license plate
Introduced by Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R) on April 22, 2014, to require the Secretary of State to develop a fundraising license plate with proceeds going to research, technology, patient support and education regarding bone marrow donation and transplants.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164048
Senate Bill 904: Require “pharmacist in charge” at pharmacies
Introduced by Sen. Joe Hune (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish sentencing guidelines for the criminal offenses proposed by Senate Bill 704, which would require pharmacies, manufacturers, and distributors to designate a pharmacist in charge. This relates to a recent “drug compounding” scandal in New England that led to contaminated drugs causing meningitis in several people.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164086
Senate Bill 905: Establish process for removing local elected official for fiscal mismanagement
Introduced by Sen. Rick Jones (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish a process by which the governing body of a city, village, or county can file a petition in circuit court to remove from office an elected official for misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance related to the custody and accounting of public money, or for failing to obtain or maintain a performance bond that statutorily required for the office.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164087
Senate Bill 906: Increase National Guard retirement benefit
Introduced by Sen. Bruce Caswell (R) on April 23, 2014, to increase an annual retirement benefit for National Guard members from $600 to $720.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164088
Senate Bill 907: Allow more school retiree “double dipping”
Introduced in the Senate on April 23, 2014, to extend for another two years a July 2014 sunset on a law that allows a “retired” school employee to work as a teacher and still collect a pension in addition to his or her current pay, subject to specified limitations and qualifications.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164089
Senate Bill 908: Accelerate vehicle trade-in “sales tax on the difference”
Introduced by Sen. David Robertson (R) on April 24, 2014, to accelerate the 24-year phase-in of a 2013 law that exempted from sales tax the value of a trade-in when buying a motor vehicle, watercraft or RV, and repeal a provision halting the phase-in if halt the phase-in if the state’s acceptance of the federal health care law’s Medicaid expansion (authorized by 2013 House Bill 4714) is rescinded.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164093
Senate Bill 909: Cap inmates in state-run prisons at 38,000
Introduced by Sen. John Proos, IV (R) on April 24, 2014, to cap the number of prisoners in state prisons at 38,000, and require that prisoners above this number be kept in jails or other “secure facilities” (which appears to mean privatized prisons including the former Michigan youth correctional facility in Baldwin, a privately owned and managed prison).
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164094
Senate Bill 910: Ban enforcement of new woodstove emissions limits
Introduced by Sen. Tom Casperson (R) on April 24, 2014, to prohibit Department of Environmental Quality from imposing new state regulations limiting emissions from woodstoves and heaters, or enforcing federal regulations that do this. The bill was introduced as news reports indicate that proposed federal Environmental Protection Agency rules would impose restrictive new limits on wood burning heaters.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164095
Senate Bill 911: Repeal mandate on governments to use unionized print shops
Introduced by Sen. Tom Casperson (R) on April 24, 2014, to repeal a 1937 law that mandates all state and local government printing (with specified exceptions) must be done by a printer who is approved by local unions (styled in the law as “the allied printing trades council of the locality”).
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164096
House Bill 5461: Revise “file and use” auto insurance rates
Introduced by Rep. Thomas Stallworth, III (D) on April 23, 2014, to revise Michigan’s “file and use” auto insurance rate regulatory system, wherein insurers are required to file for approval of any rate changes but don’t have to wait to start using the rates immediately. Under the bill, insurers would have to wait 15 days after filing before using new rates, and the state would have 30 days to disapprove them.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164068
House Bill 5462: Let ISD reconstitute failed and dissolved school district
Introduced by Rep. David Nathan (D) on April 23, 2014, to give the local Intermediate School District the duty and authority to transfer the students and territory of a failed and dissolved school district to other conventional school districts within the ISD’s jurisdiction, and also give the ISD the power to reconstitute the failed district. This would potentially reverse a 2013 lawthat established criteria and procedures for dissolving a fiscally unviable school district and attaching its territory to one or more nearby districts.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164069
House Bill 5463: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Cindy Denby (R) on April 23, 2014, to revise the state paternity law so that if a DNA test shows a man to be a child’s father then paternity is “established” in law rather than “presumed”.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164070
House Bill 5464: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Thomas Hooker (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish that if a DNA test shows a man to be the father of a child born out of wedlock then paternity is established under law, the mother is granted custody, and the paternity status may be the basis for court-ordered child support, custody, or parenting time without further adjudication. The child would have the identical status rights, and duties of a child born in lawful wedlock.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164071
House Bill 5465: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Kenneth Kurtz (R) on April 23, 2014, to specify procedures for establishing the paternity of a child born out of wedlock to a mother on welfare, and for seeking child support from the man the process determines to be the child’s father.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164072
House Bill 5466: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Robert Kosowski (D) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock to a mother on welfare. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164073
House Bill 5467: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Thomas Hooker (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164074
House Bill 5468: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Roger Victory (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock to a mother on welfare. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164075
House Bill 5469: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Kenneth Kurtz (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority in cases involving a jurisdiction in another state to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164076
House Bill 5470: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Klint Kesto (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority in cases involving a jurisdiction in another state to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164077
House Bill 5471: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Rick Outman (R) on April 23, 2014, to establish procedures for consolidating within one government agency a county prosecutor’s authority to seek child support from the father of a child born out of wedlock. The authority would then fall under either the friend of the court office, or an attorney employed or under contract with either the county or the state Department of Human Services.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164078
House Bill 5472: Create delinquent child support “alternative contempt track docket”
Introduced by Rep. Bruce Rendon (R) on April 23, 2014, to create an “alternative contempt track docket” for delinquent child support payers who are subject to one of several hardship conditions specified in the bill. This would the delinquent payer to avoid jail (be on probation) for 12 months if he enters and abides by an alternative payment plan.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164079
House Bill 5473: Revise paternity law and unwed father child support details
Introduced by Rep. Matt Lori (R) on April 23, 2014, to revise details of a law that allows a court to refuse to revoke an acknowledgment of parentage if it is in the best interests of the child.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164080
House Bill 5474: Change reference to “crippled children” in state law
Introduced by Rep. Andy Schor (D) on April 23, 2014, to revise a reference to “crippled children” in state law to instead refer to “children and youth with special health care needs”.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164081
House Bill 5475: Require registration of student athlete agents
Introduced by Rep. Rob VerHeulen (R) on April 23, 2014, to require a person who acts as an agent for a student athlete to register with the state, and establish rules for establishing an agency relationship.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164082
House Bill 5476: Revise electric utility regulated rate setting procedures
Introduced by Rep. Jim Stamas (R) on April 23, 2014, to revise details of the process used by state regulators to allocate production-related and transmission costs to the commercial customers of large utilities.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164083
House Bill 5477: Replace per-gallon gas tax with 6 percent wholesale tax
Introduced by Rep. Rob VerHeulen (R) on April 23, 2014, to replace the current 19-cent per gallon gas tax and 15-cent diesel tax with a 6 percent wholesale fuel tax. The tax could only rise by 5 percent per year even if the price of fuel rose faster, but if the price of fuel fell the rate could be increased to prevent any reduction in tax revenue compared to the 2014 level.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=164084