Loads of New Fees Rammed Through House Legislation that would extend sunsets for multiple fees and increase others passed the House last Wednesday on mostly party-line votes. Republicans voted against a series of bills that mostly extend sunsets for existing fees in...

Whitmer on Energy: "I'm Not Being Overly Prescriptive" Governor Gretchen Whitmer outlined two clear policy goals for this fall's legislative session on energy: requiring utilities to generate 100 percent of their power from renewable sources and putting the...

What to Expect in Whitmer's 'What's Next' Address This Week Whitmer will deliver a speech Wednesday in Lansing to outline her fall legislative priorities. She is calling it her "What's Next" address. Besides paid leave and energy, Whitmer also is expected,...

Whitmer to Give Fall Policy Agenda Speech Governor Gretchen Whitmer will give what she's calling a "What's Next Address" on August 30 to outline her policy priorities for the fall legislative session. It's a move that comes after the first six months of...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chang Anticipates Busy Fall The Senate committee with the most legislation to be passed into law so far this session will continue its busy pace in the fall with multiple key policy areas still slated to be taken up, its chair said...

K-12 Budget Laden With $300M+ In Projects The K-12 school aid budget for the upcoming fiscal year approved last week by the Legislature contains an unprecedented blitz of funding earmarks for school district-specific projects, initiatives managed by entities other...

Long Week of Budget Passage Looms As the Legislature approaches its end-of-the-month deadline to pass a budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, this week is set to be busy. The House plans to meet at 10 a.m. next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tentative session days have...

State Budget Target Talks Continue Negotiations to set budget target talks are continuing amid hopes among majority Democrats to complete them in time for conference committees to approve budget bills as early as this week, according to Gongwer and other sources....

Policy Conference Attendees Challenged To Face State's Population Decline According to reporting in MIRS, after producing a report forecasting there will be 45,000 more deaths than births in Michigan from 2045 to 2050, Ani Turner of the Ann Arbor-based Altarum...

House Votes To Send Distracted Driving Bills To Governor's Desk Legislation that will prohibit drivers from being on their phone while driving is ready to head to the governor's desk. The House voted to concur with the Senate amendments to HB 4250 , HB 4251 and...

Business Leaders Not As Pessimistic As They Were Among Business Leaders for Michigan members, 44% believe the state's economy will get worse in the next six to 12 months and 57% believe inflation will go down. These are among the findings from a survey of BLM members...

Automatic Speed Enforcement Gets House Committee OK Motorists traveling through construction zones on state trunklines could be subjected to speed enforcement through automated systems under legislation that unanimously cleared a House committee Tuesday. Under HB...