The legislature is back in session starting out what will be a feverish six months of work. The legislative schedule has the lawmakers in session until July 4th, provided the spring break that is in the middle of the schedule block. Issues facing the lawmakers in the coming months are the budget, changes to Michigan's auto no-fault insurance system, health insurance exchange, and others. Lets review the happenings over the past couple weeks:
Revenue Estimating Conference:
Every January and May the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies along with the Michigan Department of Treasury come together to forecast the revenue for the state in the coming year. Michigan has been showing positive but slow growth since the bottom in 2009. Jobs are on the increase with the all three sectors of jobs, high paying, medium paying, and low paying jobs all growing over the past year and also growing faster than the national average. Housing sales and start ups still continue to be sluggish and are forecasted to continue to stay that way in the coming year. Overall though Michigan is finally on its way out of its long recession with revenues starting to pick up and unemployment slowly moving down. General Fund / General Purpose revenues are forecasted to be up 2.5% from last May's projection placing it at just over $9 Billion. School Aide funding though is projecting for a decline losing 4.3% from this current fiscal year but projections are up from the May conference.
State of the State Address:
The Governor in his State of the State address pointed to his dashboard noticing that Michigan is getting more overweight than we were in the previous year. In trying to combat that trend the Governor is creating a program called Pure Michigan Fit which provides nutrition training to parents and caregivers of children at an early age. The Governor plans to partner with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, The Michigan Health and Hospital Association, and the Michigan Grocers Association to provide the education and resources on nutrition to both parents and children.
House:
The House Health Policy committee had it's last hearing on the health insurance exchanges last Thursday providing the opportunity for those in the general public to address the committee and submit their thoughts about the implementation of a health insurance exchange. The committee was in the House Appropriations chambers, which holds more people, to allow for the number of individuals that wished to testify on the issue.
Senate:
The Senate Health Policy committee did not meet but they did consider one issue. House Bill 4893 on the Senate Floor. This bill provides optometrists the ability to receive a special volunteer license, similar for physicians, and to provide the liability protections offered under the statue. The Senate Health Policy committee has not scheduled a date for an upcoming hearing.
