Governor Rick Snyder could veto his first bill this week. He faces a Friday morning deadline to sign or a reject measure sent to him by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The bill would make it difficult for state agencies to enact rules that are stricter than federal standards without first getting permission from the Legislature.
Democrats in Lansing have outlined a package to help small businesses grow and hire unemployed people.
The plan includes taking a portion of the money that’s in a state trust fund and investing it in local banks and credit unions to make small business loans.
State Representative Vicki Barnett said that will help small businesses having trouble getting credit from larger banks and investment funds.
“We know that a very teeny investment can have huge dividends in terms of job creation and access to capital,” said Barnett.
“There is no other state that I know of that is taking this approach to aggressive investment – doing things they already do with taxpayer money and targeting it to grow jobs in their own state,”she added.
The Democratic package would also allow small banks and credit unions to pool their finances to invest in larger projects.
Barnett says that would make larger loans possible while allowing the institutions to share the risk.
The plan also calls for a tax credit for small businesses that hire long-term unemployed people and veterans.
Republicans shy away from job creation credits. They say the state should not single out specific businesses for tax breaks.
Democrats at the state capital are calling for a two-year moratorium on a procedure used to extract hard-to-reach oil and gas deposits.
They are taking aim at a process called hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – where water, sand, and chemicals are sent down a well to loosen stubborn pockets of gas and oil.
Critics say it has caused pollution and dried-up water wells in other states.
State Representative Jeff Irwin thinks the procedure needs to be more tightly regulated as it becomes more common in Michigan.
He said more study is needed on the potential effects of deep-rock fracking on the world’s largest supply of fresh water.
“We have a tremendous amount to protect here in Michigan with our surface waters and our Great Lakes,” Irwin said. “When you think about what makes Michigan a special place to be, it’s really our water. It’s the one thing that we have that makes us unique over and above anyplace in the world. We have the best water resources in the world.”
Irwin said new rules should include limits on groundwater withdrawals and full disclosure of all chemicals used.
Brad Wurfel with the state Department of Environmental Quality said Michigan has some of the strictest fracking regulations in the country, and that the process has been safely used in the state's shallow rock for decades.
“If you look around the state, you’ll see where oil and gas producers over the past 60 years have fracked probably on the order of around 12,000 wells,” said Wurfel.
Wurfel said the state updated its drilling regulations in May to address hydro-fracking deeper into the rock.
The additional annual fees Michigan driver’s pay if they have seven or more points on their license may soon be reduced. The state House is expected to vote this week on proposed changes to the unpopular driver responsibility fee.
The state currently collects about $120 million every year from drivers with at least seven points on their records. State House spokesman Ari Adler said that’s too much money to simply cut from the state budget.
“We looked at doing this in a little bit more of an incremental approach without taking so much money out of the budget all at once,” Adler said. “The long term goal is to try to reduce or eliminate these driver responsibility fees but the reality is that there is a good chunk of the budget that is predicated on these fees and penalties.”
Senator Bruce Caswell agreed the state cannot afford to completely eliminate that amount of money from the budget right now but he said the fee is unfair to drivers who have already paid their fines.
“These later bills coming, I don’t care what the charge is, are inappropriate I believe and shouldn’t be done. So my hope eventually is to get rid of this thing entirely,” said Caswell.
Drivers with seven or more points on their license are assessed the annual fee in addition to the cost of their ticket. The proposal would omit or reduce the fee for minor infractions, but major traffic violations, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, would still be assessed the annual fee.
There are only a few weeks of work left for lawmakers at the state Capitol before they break for the rest of the year and there are still many issues legislative leaders would like to tackle in 2011.
House Republican spokesman Ari Adler says the Legislature is able to focus on a lot of different issues this fall, in part because lawmaker approved the state budget many months earlier than usual. Adler says much of the work left before the Legislature is on issues the public will notice:
“We’re going to be looking at Michigan’s helmet law for motorcycle riders, we’re going to be looking at making some reforms within the no-fault insurance plans that are out there to make that a system that can be sustained.”
Adler says the House will look at a Senate proposal to allow more charter schools in the state. The Senate is expected to work on proposals to further regulate medical marijuana before the end of the year.
Governor Rick Snyder says the state should be more concerned with bringing down infant mortality rates in Michigan. Infant mortality rates have gotten worse in Michigan in the past three years. He says infant mortality rates reflect the overall health of a state.
“We’ve got this up on our dashboard. On the state dashboard, not just the health and wellness dashboard, because this is something we really need to do a better job on that is an important indicator of how well our state is. And more important, we’re talking about real lives,” Snyder said, speaking this morning at an infant mortality awareness summit in Ypsilanti.
Michigan has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the nation (nearly eight deaths per 1000 live births) and ranks 37th among the states. The national rate is nearly seven deaths per 1000 births.
Snyder has had some pushback recently from lawmakers who do not like the governor’s health proposals – which include body-mass-index reporting and banning smoking on state park beaches.
Snyder said he thinks he will be able to sway skeptical lawmakers:
“Well they’re all in the pipeline, they’ll come along in terms of looking at those types of issues, because health and wellness is a big issue.”
Snyder said he does not think there needs to be anything done legislatively to help drive the rate of infant deaths down in the state, but he said state officials and medical science leaders need to get together to come up with a plan to reduce the rate of infant deaths.
Governor Snyder has signed the state's partial birth abortion ban into law. Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof sponsored Senate Bill 160 that, "outlaws the practice of partial birth abortion in Michigan, unless determined necessary to save the life of the mother. The law was modeled after the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court," the Holland Sentinel reports.
The approval from the Republican governor, which was expected, could end more than a decade of efforts by anti-abortion activists to get the ban added to state law. Previous attempts were rejected by courts or vetoed by then-Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Supporters of the Michigan bill say it should survive a legal challenge this time because it mirrors the federal ban. They argue it was important to include a ban in Michigan in case the federal law changes.
Opponents say the federal ban makes the state proposal redundant and unnecessary. Some opponents of the Michigan measure have said it may be vulnerable to legal challenge.
The outlawed procedure typically is used to end pregnancies in the second and third trimesters and involves partially removing the fetus intact from a woman's uterus and then crushing or cutting its skull to complete the abortion.
Granholm vetoed a similar bill in 2008. She also vetoed a bill in 2004, but hundreds of thousands of voters signed petitions that allowed the bill to become law with only the approval of the Legislature. Federal courts later declared that ban unconstitutional, however, because it also could have prohibited other abortion procedures.
A Michigan law from the 1990s also was eventually overturned by federal courts.
In a statement released today, the Governor said, "the people of Michigan have repeatedly spoken on this issue and this legislation reaffirms the value of human life. It also brings Michigan in line with federal law... I want to thank state Sen. Arlan Meekhof and state Rep. Ben Glardon for their leadership on this issue.”
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