Tagged: Weekly Political Roundup

Gov. Rick Snyder gave his second state of the address this week.

To take a closer look at how Gov. Snyder and the legislature might move forward this election year is Ken Sikkema former senate majority leader and Senior Policy Fellow at Public Sector Consultants and Susan Demas, political analyst for Michigan Information and Research Service.

The Michigan legislature has passed a bill that would make major changes to the state’s workers' compensation law.

Under the new bill, insurance companies can reduce the amount of compensation to an injured worker based on how much that worker could make at another job while injured. That’s regardless of whether that job is even available.

It’s now headed to Governor Rick Snyder for his signature.

With the legislature set to go on winter break next week, there's a flurry of activity at the state capitol. 

In this week's political roundup we look at the state senate bill, which makes major changes to worker’s compensation, the bill to restrict public employers from offering live in and same sex partner benefits, and news about the emergency manager law.

With the legislature on their "hunting break" right now and the holidays quickly approaching, there’s not much time to get legislative agenda items pushed through before the end of the year.

In this week's political roundup we take a look at what we might expect between now and the end of the year.

What does Republican Paul Scott's recall mean for Michigan politics and around the nation?

Ken Sikkema, former Senate Majority Leader and senior policy fellow at Public Sector Consultants, and Susan Demas, political analyst for Michigan Information and Research Service joined Michigan Radio's Jennifer White to talk about the aftermath.

The Michigan Education Association put a lot of money behind the recall effort, but the margin for the vote was very slim.

“If you look at the money spent the pro-Scott forces like the Michigan Republican Party and the state chamber of commerce actually out spent the MEA 2 to 1,” said Demas.

According to Sikkema, Michigan is not alone when it comes to voter's discontent with Republican lawmakers.

He said, “Ohio you saw a rejection of the collective bargaining reform championed by Governor Kasich. Arizona the state senator who introduced the very controversial immigration bill was recalled. So, there’s a larger national context here where there’s a real question whether Republicans are over reaching. ”

This session of the legislature is winding down and we want to take a look at what we can expect between now and the end of the year.

Susan Demas, political analyst at Michigan Information and Research Service, says we'll probably see changes to workers compensation, a push to do the no-fault insurance reforms, election reform and maybe we'll see the debate over a new Detroit River bridge come up once again.

Ken Sikkema, former Senate Majority Leader and senior policy fellow at Public Sector Consultants, says Gov. Snyder has been "pretty silent" about some high profile issues, such as the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law.