Legislative Update Week of January 20, 2014

With an overhaul and update of the blogging site, the MSMS Legislative Update is back up and running again and we are happy to provide the latest up to date happenings in Lansing and beyond. This month we find the legislature facing it's final year of the term, leaving law making playing second fiddle to the upcoming campaigns ahead of the lawmakers. This also means the timetables are accelerated which leaves the possibility of a state budget being done before the start of June. Lets review the happenings of the legislature over the past couple weeks.

Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference:

The month started out, as per usual, with the two fiscal agencies and the Michigan Department of Treasury coming together to sign an agreement on the amount of tax dollars the state will have to spend in the coming fiscal year and how the economy in Michigan is looking and will look in the future. All parties agreed that Michigan is continuing its financial recovery at a slow up strong pace. Current new starts of homes are continuing to rise in Michigan and are projected to continue on that upswing. Good news for those working and those looking for jobs with the personal wealth of people continues to rise and unemployment is projected to fall leaving people with work and more money in their pockets.

As for the state's coffers those continue to rise as well. Tax reforms done by the legislature with the cutting of the Earned Income Tax Credit, modifying the homestead tax credit, and the elimination of the child deduction, Michigan will decrease it's tax expenditures by $2.5 Billion for FY 13-14 (courtesy of the Senate Fiscal Agency). This for the coming fiscal year law makers found out that they will have an additional $474 Million to appropriate. Some are calling for a tax refund, some would like to see road work, some would like to see the tax deductions put back into place, but it will be a wait and see until the Governor releases his budget recommendation to see where the money ends up going. Click on the link to see the final estimates.

State of the State Address:

Governor Snyder delivering fourth State of the State Address.
Courtesy of MLIVE.

On January 16th Governor Rick Snyder presented his report to the legislature on the report card of Michigan. The speech started out with a review the past three years of the Governor's term talking about the points that he was proud of accomplishing including the safe sleep initiative, a policy move that MSMS supports. From there Governor Snyder moved towards his agenda on what he wanted to do yet and really started laying out his campaign platform for the coming elections. Here is a great breakdown from our multi-client lobbyists at Capitol Strategies Group:

The Governor presented his annual State of the State address Thursday evening in Lansing in front of a packed House chambers on a snowy night in Lansing. Many of the pundits in Lansing concluded the speech lacked many specifics, but below is excerpts from the speech released by the Governor’s press office.

• Snyder will create the Michigan Office for New Americans, which will drive strategies for attracting immigrants to Michigan. Snyder also is urging Congress to approve Michigan’s application to become only the second state with a state sponsored EB-5 visa regional center. The EB-5 is a tool for attracting investment and creating jobs for U.S. workers.
• Stepping up efforts to connect job providers and talent. The governor this year again will host economic and education summits to foster greater collaboration between the private sector and education community.
• Expanding the Michigan Advanced Technician Training (MAT2) program, an employer-driven initiative that helps employers bridge the “skills gap” through a statewide system for training and educating skilled technicians to fill high-paying jobs. Henry Ford Community College and Oakland Community College will serve as pilot locations for the program, which is a unique model that also includes best practices from Germany.
• Continuing the successful Community Ventures program, a public/private/nonprofit partnership created to hire at least 1,000 structurally unemployed residents from distressed neighborhoods, initially in the cities of Flint, Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw. First-year goals have been met, resulting in jobs for over 1,400 structurally unemployed residents.
• Supporting small businesses through creative partnerships. Under the Pure Michigan Micro Lending Initiative, Huntington Bank has committed $5 million for a pilot program in Detroit to help small businesses grow. Upon its successful completion, Huntington will commit $20 million more to be distributed through lines of credit to community micro lenders. Under another initiative, the 10,000 Small Businesses program, Goldman Sachs announced a $20 million partnership to help entrepreneurs in Detroit by providing access to education, financial and business support services.

21st Century Education

Ensuring that Michigan’s education system is indeed a 21st century system that reflects the needs of this technology age. This includes:

• Encouraging schools to consider a voluntary program in which they would extend classes year-round, rather than interrupting student learning with a three-month summer break. It can take weeks for many children to recover the information they learned prior to leaving for the traditional summer vacation, which delays the learning of new material. Under this concept, students still would get shorter breaks throughout the summer. Snyder applauded the Legislature’s bipartisan effort to explore this concept and urged further action.
• Providing a uniform definition of “truancy” to schools across the state. Doing so will result in greater consistency and will provide educators, human service providers, judges and police with ample opportunities to customize assistance to families so that the number of truants can be reduced.
• Implementing recommendations of the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness. The council recommended a fair and rigorous means to evaluate the skills of teachers using a combination of observed classroom practice and measured student growth.
• Making Michigan a leader in promoting STEM programs in schools and colleges. Jobs are robust in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Michigan must do a better job of aligning education with economic trends and inevitability.

Quality of Life

Improving the quality of life in our communities, as well as for seniors, and residents with special needs. The governor said:

• Michigan should become a “no wait state” for seniors who qualify for home delivered meals and in-home services. Nearly 4,500 seniors are not receiving the in-home services – including home-delivered meals – that they need. In Southeastern Michigan, half of the people qualifying for services must wait six months or more to receive services. The governor will propose additional funding in his recommended budget to eliminate this waiting list. The governor also announced that he will prepare a special message outlining opportunities to reinvent the way in which Michigan provides services to seniors.
• Lawmakers should pass pending bills that provide consumer protections for seniors.
• Adopting recommendations of the Mental Health and Wellness Report will help people with mental illness, substance abuse disorders or developmental disabilities to lead more independent lives. Recommendations include developing a Pure Michigan marketing strategy to highlight opportunities for families living with disabilities, and having Michigan join the “Spread the Word to End the Word” movement, which seeks to rid our vocabulary of derogatory terms regarding people dealing with mental illness.
• Michigan should enact laws that provide school safety drill recommendations, and encourage schools to report on completion of the drills to the state. Snyder will propose funding in the upcoming budget for school safety initiatives.
• The quality of life for nearly half-a-million Michiganders will be enhanced now that the federal government has approved the Healthy Michigan Plan. By improving access to affordable health care coverage, Healthy Michigan also will reduce uncompensated care that shifts costs onto businesses and taxpayers.
• Significant progress is being made in reducing the crime rates in Pontiac, Detroit, Saginaw and Flint. While the rates remain unacceptably high, it’s clear that the state and local partnership under the Secure Cities Initiative is having an impact. In the first 10 months of 2013, violent crimes declined by 30 percent in Flint; 16 percent in Saginaw; 7 percent in Detroit and 6.5 percent in Pontiac.

Protecting Our Environment and Natural Resources

Ensuring the protection of Michigan’s natural resources while allowing for their wise use, the governor called for:

• Increasing the state’s effort to combat invasive species, which cause environmental damage, as well as economic harm in excess of $4 billion annually across the Great Lakes region. The governor will recommend funding in the new fiscal year to implement a program aimed at preventing the introduction and spread of both aquatic and terrestrial invasive species. The program was developed through a partnership with the DNR, Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
• Using the information gathered last year through numerous public forums to develop a framework for the comprehensive energy policy that Michigan needs. In December 2013, Snyder used that information to set the stage for critical discussions on Michigan’s energy needs as they relate to adaptability, affordability and reliability.

Good Government

Continuing with the reinvention of state government so that it is customer-focused and delivers the best possible service. The governor proposed that:

• Michigan should join other states in passing a resolution that supports a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Unlike Michigan, Washington still lacks the fiscal discipline to balance its budget, which hampers the nation’s economic turnaround. Passing this amendment sends a strong signal to Washington that fiscal responsibility is needed for the good of working families and all taxpayers, as well as future generations of Americans.
• The state enhance its “early warning system” to assist communities and schools facing financial instability. Creating strong financial intervention teams, housed within the departments of Treasury and Education, will allow for earlier intervention strategies. This is in the best interests of children and taxpayers.
• While continuing to be fiscally responsible in the short and long term, it is appropriate to provide some tax relief to hard-working families. Michigan has come a long way in three years. The state’s fiscal health has improved due to the tough but necessary decisions that have been made. The governor will make an FY 15 budget recommendation that eases the burden on low- and middle-income families so that they can continue to share in Michigan’s comeback.

The state now looks ahead with the Governor's budget message on the horizon to start working to get the budget done before their self imposed deadline of June 1.

MSMS will continue to follow the activities of the budget and other areas. Find all of that information at http://www.msms.org/advocacy. Your support helps us get the policies you want passed by the legislature. Go to http://www.mdpac.org to see how you can help!

Legislative Update Week of January 14th

With the new session still in its infancy, the Legislature has not been able to get up to working at full speed yet. They awaited two crucial pieces of information: one, how much money they would have to budget with, and secondly the agenda and direction the Governor wanted to go in, Over the past week the Legislature received that information, let’s review:

Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference

Before the start of the new legislative session the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies along with the State Treasurer came together to discuss the estimated revenue that the state would have in the coming fiscal year at the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference. This conference meets twice a year, in January and in May. The conference heard from both of the fiscal agencies along with the Department of Treasury. The University of Michigan was also invited to provide an economic outlook for the state in the coming years ahead. Let’s break down the numbers:

Unemployment:
The outlook for Michigan unemployment picture is slowly brightening up. With a current rate for 2012 at 8.9%, economists forecast that the overall rate for the coming year will drop a point to 8.8%; drop to 8.2% in 2014 and 7.6% in 2015.

Personal Income:
With the drop in unemployment forecasted and second positive is the forecast of increasing personal income for those working. For 2013 it has been forecasted to increase 2.6% with a 4.3% increase in 2014 from 2013 and 4.4% increase in 2015. A direction the Governor has been advocating for since his election two years ago.

State Budget:
What does that mean for Michigan? One could extrapolate that with the increase in income over the coming year that revenues for the State will be increasing. With FY 2013 though, that isn't the case. The General Fund General Purpose monies, that fund programs like Medicaid, will actually see a decrease from FY 2012 of $472.9 Million or a change of 5.1%. The School Aid fund is expected to add an additional $249 Million than what was estimated May 2012. We could see some cuts coming in programs in Michigan for FY 13 but expected an increase in revenue of $472.2 Million for FY 14. Now the Governor will present his budget proposal to the Legislature on February 7th, so we wait and see how programs will be affected.

State of the State Address

The Governor's State of the State address was just like the other he has delivered, using an outline to rather than providing an actual written speech when he delivered it. The Governor started by providing a review of where the State was with his dashboards that he has made famous over his term has Governor. The dashboard can be view by clicking the link above. The Governor reported that with the changes that Michigan has seen over the past two years, the economy in Michigan was growing and Michigan was putting people back to work.

The road ahead for the Governor looks to continue the same success that has had over the past two years. There were three major messages that Governor Snyder conveyed to the lawmakers this past Wednesday night: one an increase in funding for roads is needed and needed now. The Governor is looking to raise 1.2 Billion each year for 10 years to cover the costs of repairing Michigan's crumbling roads. This was met with hesitation by many from his own party since the plan included a large fee increase to automobile registration. Time will tell on whether this proposal will make it out of the legislature or not.

The second major proposal was educational and the increase efforts to pass an Education Achievement Authority. Fifteen schools in the Detroit area are already operating under the premise of an Authority that provides a different look at education than what is considered typical in Michigan. Students are taught to master skills without the fear of receiving failing grades and worried about whether or not they will make it to the next grade. The Governor would like to have the opportunity to bring this proposal state wide to all of the schools that are struggling in Michigan.

Finally, the third biggest topic was insurance reform. The Governor vetoed the last efforts by the legislature to reform Blue Cross Blue Shield due to the abortion amendments that were tacked on by the House in the final days of the last session. The Governor now asked the legislature to go back to the drawing board and bring legislation forward that would move the Blues in a world that had a health insurance marketplace. Auto no fault insurance was the other insurance reform topic of his speech. He wants reforms done this year to provide protection to the insurance companies on their liability and legacy costs for those involved in an auto accident. It is inevitable that this will be on the agenda of this legislature.

To get more details on the Governor's State of the State address click here.

Stay with MSMS to receive all of the up to date information at http://www.msms.org/advocacy.

Legislative Update: Week of January 23rd

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.