A bill to change Michigan’s minimum wage law ahead of it taking effect passed the state Legislature Wednesday. The law is scheduled to take effect Friday.

If left unchanged, the law would gradually raise the minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers until both are making the same amount by 2030.

The bill would speed up raises for non-tipped workers so they get to $15 an hour by 2027 instead of just coming close in 2028 with a planned $14.97 minimum wage.

But the bill would also slow down gradual raises for people who get tips. It would cap that minimum wage for tipped workers, like bartenders and servers, at half of what everyone else makes.

Employers would still be responsible for covering the gap if tips don’t make up the difference.

Rep. Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland) said that’s a necessary compromise to protect businesses.

“It’s not perfect, but it is an action, an immediate action that’s going to help preserve our tip credit and the tip wage system. And I think that’s vital in here to the restaurant industry,” Schuette said after the House vote Wednesday.

The bill is now cleared to head to the governor to receive her signature. But, for it to go into place by Friday’s deadline, it would need the Senate to vote for it to take effect immediately. That would require a supermajority in the Democratic-controlled chamber.

Republicans and hospitality industry groups say restaurants and bars could go out of business if they become responsible for covering a server’s entire base pay. Some Democrats in both the House and Senate also voted in favor of the bill.

But other Democrats say lawmakers shouldn’t touch the petition-initiated minimum WAGE law before it takes effect Friday.

That’s especially after lawmakers, in 2018, adopted the initiative before it could go to the ballot and watered it down, in a move known as “adopt and amend.” It led to a court challenge that eventually set the Feb. 21 deadline to begin with.

One Fair Wage, the group behind the petition, sent out a press release Tuesday that argued passing the bill would be illegal under the court ruling. It included an open letter from University of Michigan law professor Samuel Bagenstos.

“The Legislature’s original adopt-and-amend constitutional violation has meant that the Wage Act and Earned Sick Leave Act have been in suspended animation for years and have still not gone into effect. For the Legislature to amend these initiatives now, before letting them take effect, would be to once again ‘sidestep the people’s reserved power,’ Bagenstos wrote, referencing another law also planned to take effect Friday.

That law guarantees all non-federal workers in Michigan the right to at least some paid time off. How much that would be depends on how many hours they work and the size of their employer.

Business groups say wording in the law would create too much new paperwork for companies and not include enough accountability to make sure people don’t skip work without any warning.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) said any compromise with Democrats needs to include exceptions for small businesses and seasonal workers, limit who can sue an employer, and include more accountability.

Hall also wants it to be more clear that businesses can offer the required sick time up front and not have to worry about doing the math to see how much sick time someone earns based on hours worked.

“I think we’re laying out things that we need to protect in order to do a deal here,” Hall told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.

Like with the minimum wage bill, however, some Democrats are promising opposition, saying people should be able to stay home if they’re sick, regardless of how many coworkers they have.

When asked what he’s hoping to get out of any compromise legislation, House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said he’s just trying to watch out for Michigan workers.

“There’s been a very false choice presented where we have to pick between business and workers. And I don’t think that that is the reality of the situation here,” Puri told reporters.

The main sick leave policy bill is currently before the state Senate, which is expected to take up a vote on the measure Thursday in what could end up being a long session day.

The House would likely still need to agree to whatever compromise changes the Senate could introduce before the sick leave bill goes to the governor as well.

Both the sick leave and minimum wage bills are tie-barred together, meaning neither can take effect unless both become law.

Inmates in Michigan’s only prison for women are suing the state Department of Corrections for alleged forced labor and gender discrimination.

The lawsuit claims the plaintiffs at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility were forced to work as unpaid porters, cleaning common areas like showers and hallways, despite having chronic medical conditions. It’s asking the Michigan Court of Claims to certify its class action status.

Each of the women in the complaint live in the units that house the prison’s Vocational Village Curriculum but don’t participate in it. Instead, they work other paid prison jobs like for the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund, or as tutors.

Still, women say prison staff told them if they don’t work at least one week a month as an unpaid porter, they could potentially face discipline and risk their paid jobs and educational opportunities.

That goes against department policy, according to the complaint.

“Prisoners in Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) correctional facilities who are assigned to work and/or school shall be paid and/or receive stipends for the assignments as set forth in this policy except if in the Special Alternative Incarceration Program,” MDOC’s directive on prison work reads.

The lawsuit claims the warden at Huron Valley told the women the unpaid work requirement was department wide, though the plaintiffs argue men in a similar situation didn’t have to work for free.

According to the complaint, attempts to resolve the issue within the prison system were unsuccessful, with a friend of one plaintiff reaching out personally to Kyle Kaminski, the MDOC legislative liaison.

In purported correspondence included in the complaint, Kaminski said the village model at the prison is supposed to have a different feel from the rest of the prison, leading to the need for more internal porters.

“At both male villages, having some responsibility for the unit is perceived as part of being in the Village community, but it seemed like the approach at WHV could have focused on that more,” the email reads.

The women, who are representing themselves in the lawsuit, are seeking damages from MDOC and an end to the unpaid labor policy. They’re also asking for court appointed attorneys.

MDOC did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Many Michigan workers would make at least $15 an hour within the next two years under a plan passed Thursday in the state Senate.

Under the bill, the minimum wage for tipped workers would eventually rise to half of what others are making. Tips are supposed to make up the difference.

That’s still different, however, than a court-restored minimum wage law set to take effect next Friday.

That law would incrementally grow the state’s minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers so both camps are making the same amount by Feb. 21, 2030.

Service industry groups had long decried that. They argued being forced to cover a tipped worker’s full wage without any accounting for tips could put them out of business.

Restaurants worry paying workers more out of pocket would lead to higher menu costs and lower tips.

During a committee hearing Wednesday, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity shared a presentation that found tipping habits across the country were within the 15-20% range, regardless of how much a worker made.

Still, State Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) sponsored the bill to change that policy before it takes effect.

“I’ve heard loud and clear from people across my district, whether they are small business owners, whether they are waitresses, waiters, bartenders, that this was going to impact them in a negative way, and they wanted something to change here,” Hertel told reporters. “That’s why we worked so hard to get Senate Bill 8 passed.”

Hertel’s bill only passed the Senate because most Republicans in the Democratically-controlled chamber voted for it. Most Democrats did not.

“I think this shows that in a divided legislature, we’re going to have to agree to disagree sometimes, but move important issues forward. This is a good start to a divided legislature. This is a really important policy, I think. But we did it in a bipartisan way,” Hertel said.

Groups opposed to the bill argued lawmakers should let the minimum wage law take effect as is to see how things go before making any changes to it. They say tipped workers should be making more in base pay anyway.

Despite the bipartisan vote, Republicans in the Senate largely said they were reluctantly supporting the measure just to keep things moving forward.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp) said he’d rather keep the minimum wage for tipped workers at 38% of the base rate of the regular minimum wage, as it currently is.

“Our full-service restaurant model that has been built up over the last several decades is built on this. And so, it’s one of those things where, do you live to fight another day? And, today we’re saying, ‘Small business owners, Senate Republicans are going to have your back,’” Nesbitt told reporters after Senate session Thursday.

Democrats in the Senate had originally proposed capping the minimum pay for tipped workers at 60% before compromising at 50% in what Hertel described as a “framework” for a deal with the House. The bill will still need to make it past that chamber to become law.

Earlier in the day, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) called on Democrats to meet him in the middle with that 50% number.

“This is a good first step for Michigan’s tipped workers and their small businesses all across our state. If it gets done, this agreement would keep thousands of people on the job, help them make more money to support their families, and keep many of our beloved local businesses open for generations to come,” Hall said in a press release following the Senate vote.

While the Senate passed a minimum wage proposal Thursday, it held off on possible changes to the state’s sick leave law, which is also supposed to take effect next Friday.

Wording in the Senate minimum wage bill stops it from taking effect unless lawmakers also pass a House sick leave proposal too.

That House bill has been before the Senate for weeks. But negotiations on what a final version will look like are still ongoing.

Michigan inched a step closer to applying its open records laws to the governor and the Legislature Wednesday. That’s after the Michigan Senate passed bills to expand the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Michigan is one of few states that don’t allow FOIA requests for the governor or lawmakers, despite years of trying to change that.

Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) has been working on the bipartisan legislation for years. He said corruption scandals among lawmakers show the need for stronger FOIA laws.

“I don’t know what more we could say to make the case for this, because the bad behavior and the darkness over this Capitol building makes the case better than we can,” Moss told reporters after Senate session Wednesday.

Critics of the bills say they allow too many exceptions for things like policy recommendations, records held by the governor for fewer than 30 days, or communications with constituents.

State Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) said the bills are more “bark than bite.”

“Michigan ranks among the worst states in government transparency, and taxpayers deserve to have real measures that will push open wide the door on government secrecy, not merely cracks in the blinds,” Runestad said ahead of the Senate vote.

The bill package sponsors defend the carve-outs as reasonable for the policymaking process to play out.

Runestad also raised concerns about the FOIA coordinators in the House and Senate being appointed solely by each chamber’s leader, saying that led to the possibility of making the position political. He said he reluctantly voted in favor of the bills.

The package ultimately passed the Senate with only two votes against it.

In the House, where similar legislation died last session, Republican House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) told reporters earlier this month to not expect “fast action” on the bills.

Still, Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan), another package co-sponsor, said he’s undeterred. Even if House votes don’t come quickly.

“I believe the support for the issue has never been greater because people have made promises and commitments on the campaign trail that they support this, but they need to learn how it is. And there’s a lot of nuance,” McBroom said.

McBroom mentioned he has since had conversations with Hall, who has voted for similar bills in the past, where Hall assured his support.

Hall’s office did not respond to a request for clarification by Wednesday afternoon.

At the time of his comments, Hall said he’s more focused on other issues like creating more transparency in the budget process. To that end, the House unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday to require lawmakers to publicly name which special projects they’re sponsoring in the budget ahead of voting on such items.

That raises the possibility of both chambers potentially making a deal to take up one another’s open government priorities.

Michigan’s top elections official is facing a campaign finance complaint from the state Republican Party.

Republicans argue Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson should be fined for taking questions from reporters about her gubernatorial campaign in a state office building when she first filed to run.

Tyler Henningsen, political director of the Michigan Republican Party, said the complaint merits action.

“We call on the Bureau of Elections to take this complaint seriously and to hold Jocelyn Benson accountable for her flagrant abuses of the public’s trust. We also request that the Bureau of Elections enjoin Secretary Benson and her campaign from future violations and fine them the maximum amount permitted by law,” Henningsen said in a press release. “The integrity of our public office holders must be maintained, and the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources for personal political gain will not be tolerated.”

Michigan election law bans the use of public resources, including state offices, for political causes.

“A public body or a person acting for a public body shall not use or authorize the use of funds, personnel, office space, computer hardware or software, property, stationery, postage, vehicles, equipment, supplies, or other public resources to make a contribution or expenditure or provide volunteer personal services that are excluded from the definition of contribution,” the statute reads.

But the law does make an exception for public facilities, “if any candidate or committee has an equal opportunity to use the public facility.”

When asked earlier this month about why she was speaking inside the Richard H. Austin Building when other candidates typically address reporters outside when filing their paperwork, Benson noted the single digit weather.

Benson said it’s never come to her attention if other candidates have been unable to do the same, replying, “Of course,” when asked if others would have the same opportunity.

On Monday, after the MIGOP complaint had been filed, Benson’s campaign defended the location of her address.

Alyssa Bradley is a campaign spokesperson.

“The lobby space used is a public space where First Amendment activity can occur as long as it doesn’t interfere with the operation of the building,” Bradley said in a written statement.

 A spokesperson with the Michigan Department of State confirmed Monday that the Bureau of Elections had received a complaint from Henningsen and noted that, since the complaint deals with Secretary Benson, who heads that department, it will automatically go to the Michigan Department of Attorney General for consideration, as required by law.

Bills to address racial disparities in maternal health care are making a comeback in the Michigan Legislature.

The Senate bills would increase data reporting, include pregnant people in protections outlined in state civil rights law, and expand Medicaid coverage for pregnancy-related care.

Similar bills were reintroduced last legislative session. Those bills passed the Michigan Senate but got caught up in other politics during the last weeks of the year.

Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) said she and other package sponsors are hitting the ground running this time.

“An early start provides us an opportunity to not only continuing to collect stories from people across the state who would benefit from these bills, but it also gives us an opportunity to have really strategic conversations with both sides of the aisle,” Anthony said Friday.

State health department numbers show Black women die from pregnancy-related causes more than twice as often as white women.

The first time around, some of the bills in the package received at least a few Republican votes in the Senate.

Unlike then, Republicans now control the Michigan House. That means the package would need bipartisan buy-in to come to a vote, let alone pass the Legislature, should the bills make it out of the Senate.

Anthony said she’s feeling undeterred, saying people expect lawmakers to work on their behalf.

“Part of that is for us to sit down and find common ground on things that are not partisan and quite honestly are not wedge issues, and making sure that women have the resources they need as they are planning their family is something that I think we can find some common ground on,” Anthony said.

The Michigan Senate voted Wednesday to let its Democratic leadership sue on behalf of the chamber to have nine bills that passed the Legislature last session forwarded to the governor.

The bills deal with topics like corrections worker pensions, state employee health insurance premiums and museum millages.

They passed both chambers of the state Legislature last session but procedurally never made it to the governor’s desk before party control of the Michigan House switched from Democratic to Republican.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said there’s no timetable yet for filing a lawsuit to have the bills sent over, and what comes next depends on the new speaker of the House Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp).

“We’ll make that decision as facts become clearer about how the speaker intends to respond. Ideally, he would take this opportunity to do the right thing and send those bills to the governor without us having to pursue further legal action,” Brinks told reporters Wednesday.

The House Clerk’s Office was in the process of presenting the final bills passed during the 2023-2024 legislative session to the governor when the new lawmakers were sworn in. After taking charge, Hall said he asked the new House clerk to pause pending a legal review.

Brinks said Wednesday that the review has taken long enough.

“I believe there’s an obligation if legislation has been passed properly by both bodies, it should be delivered to the governor’s desk,” Brinks said.

Hall views things differently.

“There’s just a lot of legal and constitutional questions and, the more we look into it, the more we find,” Hall said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. He added, “The Senate has no role in telling the House what to do.”

Hall and other Republicans have blamed Democrats for dragging their feet in sending the bills along in the first place, arguing the problem is their fault.

He said he felt like a lawsuit from the Senate would be, “wasting taxpayer dollars.”

It’s unclear what specific legal arguments any potential lawsuit would make in a court. But Brinks said she feels the Senate, and other state employees who could see their benefits plan costs go down, are harmed parties.

Brinks said the Senate has both internal and outside legal counsel at its disposal.

The state constitution doesn’t outline a timeline for forwarding bills on to the governor after passing the Legislature.

A state House committee approved legislation Thursday to scale back minimum wage and earned sick time laws set to take effect in a few weeks.

These fast-tracked bills would restore a tipped wage that’s lower than the new minimum wage, put more conditions on earned sick leave, and slow down the scheduled increases in both. The bills were both approved with broad bipartisan votes that sent them to the House floor for action next week.

“There’s a consensus being forged here in recognition that we need to work and act to help protect Michigan workers and small businesses,” said Representative Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland), who chairs the special committee.

The action wrapped up two separate days of testimony that was dominated by businesses and workers expressing fears that the new laws would cause shutdowns and layoffs.

The bills address a Michigan Supreme Court decision that the Legislature illegally acted six years ago to override citizen-initiated sick leave and minimum wage laws. The decisions set a schedule of raising the hourly wage from $10.56 to $12.48 on February 21. It would rise to $14.97 in 2028 and then be ratcheted with inflation. The bills would instead set the minimum wage at $12 an hour this year and incrementally increase it to $15 in 2029.

But, under these bills, the minimum wage for tipped workers would roll back to 38% of the regular minimum wage. The bills would also exempt businesses with fewer than 50 employees from the paid sick leave policy. Larger businesses would have to allow full-time employees to accrue up to 72 hours of sick leave.

But these changes don’t sit well with the coalition that campaigned for the minimum wage and sick leave initiatives only to have the rug pulled out from under that work by Republican majorities during a lame duck legislative session.

“These were part of a 2018 petition drive and because of the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of the Legislature, these provisions have been delayed for the last six years,” said Rachel Richards with the Michigan League for Public Policy, a progressive advocacy group that opposes the changes. Richards told Michigan Public Radio the laws should be allowed to go into effect as intended before they were illegally altered by the Legislature.

The next step is for the bills to be voted on by the House and then the Senate. If they are adopted by both chambers, they would go to Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be signed or vetoed.

Michigan House Republicans are renewing an effort to count around a dozen Upper Peninsula natural gas generators as clean energy.

Without the policy change, the reciprocating internal combustion engines, or RICE generators, would have to go offline or cancel out their greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

That’s because of a state law requiring a complete clean energy transition by then.

State Rep. Karl Bohnak (R-Deerton) sponsors the legislation. He said renewable energy sources wouldn’t be able to replace the energy production of the gas generators.

“If we were to build out these solar and wind, there would be much less. And we have to use huge amounts of land, hundreds of thousands of acres for solar. And just think about all the roads we have to construct and so on and so forth, how much that would cost,” Bohnak said Wednesday.

A concern with the 13 RICE generators is how new they are. They were built within the last 10 years to replace coal plants in the U.P. The natural gas generators emit less greenhouse gases than the coal plants, but they still burn fossil fuels and contribute to climate change.

Rep. David Prestin (R-Cedar River) said ratepayers will be covering the costs for the gas generators until 2049. He’s doubtful renewable energy could provide enough power for the U.P.

“They’re bonded out till then. So, we’re going to be paying on two sources of generation. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t work. If they don’t stay running, we go darker. We become reliant on Wisconsin transmission,” Prestin said.

When the state Legislature rewrote Michigan’s energy laws in 2023, Prestin and other Northern Michigan lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to create a carve-out for the generators. The law did leave some exceptions for fossil fuel plants, including ones using carbon-capture or removal technology.

But it doesn’t look like the RICE generator exception is going to get much support from Democrats in the House minority.

“Michigan is on track for a healthier future thanks to the Clean Energy and Jobs Act we passed in 2023, and we’re already seeing the jobs and tax revenue that go along with transformative infrastructure investments. Any proposal that cuts the U.P. off from the economic and health benefits of green energy doesn’t make sense,” House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) and House Democratic Floor Leader John Fitzgerald (D-Wyoming) said in a joint written statement.

House Republican leadership named state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.) the new House Appropriations Committee chair Tuesday.

That means she’ll oversee the House’s role in the state budget-writing process, as well as any other spending bills that come through the chamber.

Bollin, a fourth-term lawmaker, said she sees several places where the state could cut spending.

“We’re not coming here because we want to slash everything. What we want to do is increase the transparency and accountability and make sure that every program is giving us value for the dollar,” Bollin said during a press conference for Tuesday’s announcement. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable. In fact, I think that’s what you should expect us to do.”

Republicans have taken control of the state House this year after winning a majority in the November elections.

Representatives Matt Maddock (R-Milford) and Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) will serve as Bollin’s vice chair and minority vice chair.

(Farhat said he wasn’t aware of the pick until the press conference had already begun. A staffer left to find and bring him to the meeting after he had been named. Farhat accepted the offer on the spot and said he hopes to focus on road funding and lowering the cost of living.)

During Tuesday’s announcement, Republicans also unveiled their plans for shaking up the budget-writing process to accomplish their goal of cutting what they called wasteful spending.

One part of that involved splitting up the subcommittee that usually works on the state health department budget into three parts.

One appropriations subcommittee will work on the services side of the department, which runs things like public assistance programs.

Another will focus on the health side of the Department of Health and Human Services. A third will deal with “Medicaid and Behavioral Health.”

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) said the split in writing the MDHHS budget will work alongside other new accountability efforts. He has plans to create subcommittees to work underneath the House Oversight Committee as well.

“You’ve got three oversight committees working hand in hand with three appropriations subcommittees because a lot of this value for your dollars that we’re going to get is going to come out of DHHS and other places,” Hall said.

At more than $37.6 billion, the state health department makes up the largest spending area in the current state budget.

Aside from splitting up the MDHHS budget subcommittee, House Republicans are consolidating the process for some other budget areas. For example, the judiciary and corrections budgets will be combined.

The plan to redesign the budget subcommittees comes after Republicans included wording in the House rules for the 2025-2026 session that requires some reporting of which lawmaker is asking for certain spending items.

That disclosure only applies to what are known as “enhancement grants,” which the Detroit News noted means other spending items could still be anonymously requested.

Republican House Speaker Matt Hall said more transparency requirements could still come in a future resolution.

“That’s why I included it in the rule that way, where it’s done by resolution in a vote of the body so that we can hear the feedback and you see where the gaps are, and then we can look to address those in the rules,” Hall said.

Democrats remain in charge in the state Senate.

When asked if she would consider handling things similarly to Republicans, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) said she didn’t have any plans for a similar shake up.

“Our constituents are looking for us to stand in the gap and to mind the state’s coffers. And whether that’s looking at road funding, essential services in that DHHS budget, look, you can slice and dice the chairs all you want. I want to make sure that people have the services they need,” Anthony told reporters following the press conference.

Anthony, who said she sat in on the press conference to see and congratulate who she’d be working with on the budget, said she wasn’t aware of the full Republican proposals. But, she said, from what she observed, there seemed to be a level of “recycling and theater” regarding the transparency in budget requests requirements.

Legislative budget proposals typically start coming out within the first few months of the year. In the past few years, lawmakers have passed a full budget by the end of June.

Michigan businesses could get more help from the state with getting off the ground and with research and development under new laws signed Monday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

One of the new policies allows companies to write off a portion of their R&D expenses on their taxes.

Businesses with at least 250 workers could receive a tax credit of up to $2 million per year. Smaller ones could claim a credit of up to $250,000 annually.

Michigan has been the only state in the Midwest that didn’t offer some sort of R&D tax credit.

State Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said the new laws will help keep entrepreneurs from leaving the state.

“It’s causing a brain drain. It’s causing our best and brightest to start somewhere else. And what we’re doing is we’re creating an opportunity for our homegrown talent here in Michigan to stay in Michigan, to employ in Michigan, to invest in Michigan,” Farhat said during a bill signing in Detroit Monday.

Another new policy would form a new state fund to invest in other funds that, in turn, invest in start-up businesses.

$60 million in returns from those investments would then get funneled back toward the Michigan Innovation Fund Program each year to restart the cycle.

Whitmer called the Michigan Innovation Fund Program “fiscally responsible” and “great for taxpayers.”

“When we invest in an entrepreneur and their business makes money and creates jobs, it’s the people of Michigan who benefit. We’ll also put the money we invested right back into the innovation fund so we can help even more startups in a sustainable way,” Whitmer said.

Both policies received bipartisan support on their journey through the state Legislature. But they also received criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Critics argued the state shouldn’t be giving profitable companies money.

Monday also marked Whitmer’s first time taking questions from media at an event since the last legislative session sputtered out.

The messy end in the Michigan House left a handful of bills still waiting to be sent to her desk by the time Republicans took control of the chamber last week.

They deal with topics like retirement plan options for corrections officers, insurance premiums for state employee health plans, and tax millages for history museums.

Republican House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) told reporters last week that he instructed the House clerk to hold off on forwarding the bills to Whitmer once he took charge, saying he wanted to make sure there weren’t “technical problems” with them.

Whitmer, a Democrat, said she’ll wait to see what Hall decides what to do.

“I’m not going to prejudge what is happening with the bills. I know that Speaker Hall has said they’re doing a legal review that’s in his purview. He’s now the speaker of the House. But we’ll continue to wait and expect those bills shortly I would imagine,” Whitmer said.

The state constitution requires bills passed by the legislature go to the governor. But it doesn’t say anything about a timeline.

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A date has now been set for a hearing on proposed rules to close a potential loophole around lobbyist gift laws in Michigan.

Michigan law bans lawmakers and other public officials from accepting gifts, like concert and sports tickets, from lobbyists if the value is above a certain amount determined each year.

For 2025, that amount is $79 per month.

The concern, however, is that officials have been accepting those gifts anyway with the promise of reimbursement for the difference between the actual gift value and the legal limit.

“If a public official wants to pay the Detroit Lions, Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings, or Fisher Theatre, etc., directly for a ticket out of the public official’s candidate committee by finding a way to categorize that payment as an incidental expense, maybe legal, however, the lobbyist or lobbyist agent shouldn’t be allowed to play Ticketmaster, by delivering the ticket to the public official and be the one reimbursed,” mid-Michigan attorney Bob LaBrant wrote in a request for the state to step in.

In August, state elections officials answered requests from LaBrant and the Michigan Association of Health Plans.

The interpretive statements moved to end the reimbursement practice and add more guidance to lobbying groups that seek to pay for officials to travel and attend conferences.

Christina Hildreth Anderson is chief of staff for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

“Allowing the cost of a gift to be allocated across multiple parties, be they lobbyists or public officials, cannot circumvent the gift ban and in doing so would frustrate the purposes of the Lobby Act,” Hildreth Anderson wrote in a response to LaBrant.

Now, the state is trying to codify that stance into an official administrative ruleset, to further cement it.

The next step in that process is a public hearing set for Tuesday, March 18.

The new Republican speaker of the Michigan House says he’s not sure if or when he’ll forward the final bills passed during the previous legislative session to the governor’s desk.

The issue came up when Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) took over as House Speaker during the start of the new legislative session Wednesday. At that point, the process of sending the governor bills passed during the last session hadn’t yet finished.

Hall said he told the House clerk’s office to pause once he took charge so lawyers could look through them first.

“Can a new Legislature even present what an old Legislature did? I don’t have answers to all this stuff. I just know that I have a duty to — I don’t like to rush. I stopped. I said we need a legal review, we need to look at this very carefully,” Hall told reporters during a press conference Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Gongwer News Service reported those nine bills included ones dealing with history museum millages, expanding access to the state police pension system, and health insurance premiums for public employees.

The state constitution says “every bill passed by the legislature shall be presented to the governor.” But it doesn’t outline a timeline for that process.

Hall argued Democrats have sat on bills for weeks in the past before sending them to the governor.

“So, you can hold these things a long time and then you can present. I’m just saying that I wanted to do a legal review and we’re going to do a very thorough legal review to look at these bills. I mean, there could be a lot of technical problems with the bills,” he said.

The bills in question were passed in mid-December.

As far as policies for this year go, Hall predicted minimum wage and sick leave bills will pass within “the next few weeks.”

The state is set to see the minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers jump in February.

Meanwhile, most Michigan workers could start earning at least 72 hours of guaranteed sick leave a year, depending on how much they work.

Business groups have shared concerns about both plans.

Hall said he created a special committee this week to deal with the topic, alongside other policy committees.

“These committees are going to be talking to people across Michigan and understanding the impact of these policies, taking these introduced bills and making sure they work. That’s one of the reasons committees matter. When you have committee hearings, you learn things and you say, ‘We’ve got to make some adjustments,’ and that’s what’s going to happen,” Hall said.

House Republicans and Senate Democrats have both introduced bills to allay some of the business community’s fears.

As of Thursday night, the Select Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses is the only House committee with assigned membership.

Traditionally, the House Appropriations Chair has at least been named by this point, with budget season beginning in earnest this week.

Hall said the lack of assignments was a mix of having to find placements for everyone and “taking on the responsibility of looking at a lot of the Democrats’ assignments too.”

When asked to explain further why he had concerns about Democratic placements, Hall referenced a belief that committees shouldn’t be used to “instill party discipline.”

Jess Travers, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton), rejected the idea that Democrats were making committee assignments inappropriately.

“Leader Puri has not created any obstacle to committee assignments. He is unaware of what the Speaker might be referring to – the insinuation is simply nonsensical,” Travers said in a text when asked for comment.

In other policy areas, Hall warned not to expect “fast action” on Senate bills to expand the Freedom of Information Act despite him voting for similar bills in previous years.

Instead, Hall pointed to transparency in spending and stopping lawmakers from immediately becoming lobbyists as bigger priorities this time around.

Those could be topics to work out through the what Hall predicted would be “growing pains” of building relationships with leadership in the Democratic controlled Senate and governor’s office.

Hall, who served as minority leader in the House for the past two years, said he hopes to loosen some of what he perceives as the governor’s influence in the chamber.

New House rules remove department heads and liaisons from the governor’s office from the list of people who have access to the House floor.  

“People have asked me, ‘Do you think this is going to be combative two years or do you think it will be a productive two years?’ I think it’ll be both. It’ll be combative and productive because we’re going to get a lot done. That’s what happens when you have strong leadership,” Hall said.

Bills to expand Michigan open records laws to apply to the governor’s office and lawmakers were among the first introduced at the start of the new legislative session Wednesday.

The policies were among the many that had passed the Michigan Senate last session but died in the House of Representatives during the final days of last year.

Package co-sponsor Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) has worked on the Freedom of Information Act expansion for years.

Moss said he feels optimistic about its chances despite party control in the Michigan House switching from Democrats back to Republicans this session.

“This is now something that has only passed out of a Democratic controlled Senate and only passed out of a Republican controlled House. I’m hopeful that maybe this is the right mechanics that are in place now to get it done,” Moss told reporters.

Between Moss and Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Twp), the policy has bipartisan sponsorship.

The bills were set up Wednesday to skip the committee process in the state Senate, meaning they could potentially be voted on as early as next week if lawmakers chose.

Moss said there’s little more to add to discussions about the matter.

“This has got to be the most vetted policy that’s still lingering in this town. And I think that by not only prioritizing it as Senate bills one and two, but by sending it directly to the floor, we are signaling how important this is,” Moss said.

Senate Democrats also unveiled their plan Wednesday for the future of the state’s minimum wage and sick leave laws.

That’s ahead of a policy shift scheduled for February.

Both the scheduled increase and the Democrats’ plan would gradually increase pay for both tipped and non-tipped workers.

The bills would gradually bump the overall minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, quicker than the scheduled timeline. But it would cap the minimum wage for tipped workers at 60% of what non-tipped workers make, instead of the current plan to create parity by 2030.

Business groups had pushed lawmakers to scale back the increase.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) said he hasn’t fully looked at the Democrats’ proposal yet. But he said keeping the tipped wage credit is a top priority.

“Over the last several decades, over the last 70 years, we’ve had a whole industry built around this. And my No. 1 priority is how do you save the 50,000 restaurant jobs in the state of Michigan? And so I’m willing to work with anybody anyhow to find that solution as we go into it,” Nesbitt told reporters.

In the Michigan House, Republicans are also naming minimum wage and sick leave as top priorities.

Now that 2024 is over, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will have to decide what to do with the dozens of bills heading her way.

Though the 2023-2024 Michigan Legislature never officially set an adjournment date for a ritual known as adjourning sine die, Latin for “without day,” the session effectively ended with the end of the year.

That means every bill from the previous Legislature that now reaches her desk has 14 days to either receive Whitmer’s signature or die.

Stacey LaRouche is a spokesperson for Whitmer.

“We will review legislation sent to our desk,” LaRouche said in a text message.

Many of the bills are caught up in the process of sending passed legislation from the Capitol across the street to the governor’s office. But there are dozens of them for Whitmer to consider.

Some outstanding items include bills to support Whitmer’s economic priorities.

One potential new policy would allow businesses to write off a portion of their research and development costs on their taxes.

Another would create a Michigan Innovation Fund Program to help invest state money in business startups.

The list, however, does not include legislation to reshape a major business incentive program known as the SOAR Fund that had seen negotiations fall apart last year. With a funding mechanism set to expire in October, that could see a push from Whitmer in the coming months.

More bills set to reach Whitmer’s desk deal with issues related to reproductive health care.

They would increase access to hormonal birth control, to mental health care for new mothers, and allow for the licensing of free-standing birth centers.

The state legislature also passed a bill to repeal work requirements for the Healthy Michigan Plan Medicaid-expansion program. Enforcement for those is currently blocked by a federal judge.

Michigan lawmakers did not pass — however — a bill package meant to curb racial disparities in maternal health. Those policies could come up again in the new legislative session that starts next week.

Still, Whitmer will also have to consider public safety-related bills in the coming weeks.

For example, one would create commissions to evaluate criminal justice policies and prison sentences.

Whitmer will also have to decide what to do with bills to update the state’s hate crime laws and to expand access to the state police pension system to corrections workers and other law enforcement-adjacent positions.

The new legislative session starts Wednesday.

Within a couple months, Michigan workers will start earning an hour of sick time for every 30 hours they work.

Places with 10 or more employees will have to provide at least 72 hours of paid sick time each year.

Smaller businesses would only have to offer 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. The other 32 hours would come as unpaid sick leave.

The new policies are taking place because of a court ruling that restored a 2018 law to its original form.

Business groups have been pushing lawmakers to make some changes to that restored law before the ruling takes effect Feb. 21.

Small Business Association of Michigan President Brian Calley said he’d like to see lawmakers scale back some of the law’s reporting requirements.

“This law requires extremely precise and detailed accounting of accruals for actual time worked. And so, what a lot of employees are going to find under this law is that employers are going to require that the employee report to them exactly when they are in and are not working,” Calley said Monday. “It’ll be a big cultural shift for flexible work environments.”

The court ruling has sparked discussion over how to interpret the new requirements and what they could mean for businesses. Some raised questions about how it would impact current benefits packages that businesses may offer.

In response, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity hosted a webinar in August. LEO Deputy Director of Labor Sean Egan tried to allay concerns it would be too much of a shift for some.

“As long as they meet that 72 hours and certain accruals, and you allow that use for the same use as allowed under the Earned Sick Time Act, you may not need to add anything to your plan,” Egan said.

Under the policy as planned, workers would be able to use their sick time if they or a family member feel unwell, or experience domestic or sexual violence.

Calley said it could lead to workers no-call/no showing, adding he’d like to see more accountability of employees using their sick time.

“It’s not until the fourth consecutive day of absences that the employer can require any documentation as to why the person was absent and that they’re absent for a reason covered under the law,” Calley said.

Some lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have expressed interest in taking another look at the policies. But compromise would have to pass both the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives, as well as get the signature of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Calley shared his doubts as to whether lawmakers could reach an agreement by February.

Michigan workers can expect two increases in the minimum wage next year.

The first raise will be a modest $0.23 hourly increase on Jan. 1 for non-tipped workers. The first bump for people who make tips comes out to an extra $0.08 an hour.

The first set of changes will put Michigan’s minimum hourly wage at $10.56 an hour and $4.01 per hour for tipped workers.

Less than two months later, on Feb. 21, the minimum wage is scheduled to go up again. This time, non-tipped workers would make at least $12.48 an hour. Tipped workers would get $5.99 per hour.

That’s as the state begins a phase out of special lower minimum wage tipped workers currently receive, with the tipped wage ending altogether in 2030.

How that plays out, however, is still in the air.

Restaurant industry groups are calling on state lawmakers to maintain the tip credit.

The state legislature failed to take up the issue this month, punting the question into next year when Republicans assume control of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Incoming House leadership has already named it as a top priority.

Candidates in the race to become the next leader of the Michigan Democratic Party are jockeying for position ahead of next year’s party convention. Former state Senator Curtis Hertel is among them, boasting a recent endorsement from the state party’s Black Caucus. Hertel said everyone in the party needs to feel listened to if it’s to recover from steep losses in this year’s November general election. “We need to be the big tent that we are, which means that everyone feels listened to and that everyone has a seat at the table and is part of the decision making process. So that’s what I think building, you know, moving forward, that’s how we get buy in from everyone,” Hertel said Monday.

Listen: Curtis Hertel speaks with WDET’s Russ McNamara about why he is running for MDP chair

Most recently, Hertel unsuccessfully ran to replace Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin in Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District.

When asked what concerns him about the direction of the party, Hertel said he worried things have become too focused on the top of the ticket instead of the down ballot races.

“It’s got to be recruiting great people to run for county commission so that your grassroots is strong. Making sure that we win both the House and the Senate so that it’s not just the governor, but someone that can actually get a working people’s agenda done,” Hertel said.

That’s something Hertel and his challengers have in common.

MDP Rural Caucus Chair Mark Ludwig is also seeking the party’s top spot. He said the party has been unresponsive while he believes money used for the party’s statewide coordinated campaign efforts should have been spent more wisely this past election cycle.

Ludwig noted the large fundraising haul national efforts brought in and decisions to spend a lot of it on marketing for the top races.

“I just really question whether your 15th showing of a commercial to somebody on legacy media is an effective use of campaign dollars, as opposed to just cramming it down the ballot. You know, I think—If all of our 110 state House candidates had just had ten grand dropped on them, which in a rural area, that’s a respectable campaign,” Ludwig said.

Both Ludwig and Hertel said another place the party went wrong was bringing in too many campaign operatives from outside of Michigan who may not have fully understood the state’s political landscape or how to pronounce town names.

The candidates said they’re taking their campaign pitch for party chair across the state.

Ludwig argued what he described as the “activist middle” has felt abandoned and frustrated. He proposed using party leadership positions as one place to help people feel more included.

“We’ve got to use these officer positions as more than, you know, a holding place for career politicians that are, you know, on their way from here to there. We need to do something with, you know, the first, second, third, fourth, fifth vice chair of the Democratic Party,” Ludwig said.

Another candidate in the race for party chair is Detroit-based social justice advocate Al “BJ” Williams.

On his website, Williams proposed focusing more on local organizing efforts about precinct delegates, building community partnerships, candidate recruitment, and bringing on new donors.

More people could still join the fray ahead of the party’s spring convention next year.

Whoever does win party chair will be tasked with leading Michigan Democrats through several high-profile contests in 2026, including for governor.

The Michigan Senate sent a flurry of bills to the governor as it met Thursday night and deep into Friday morning.

Thursday’s overnight session was likely the chamber’s last time voting on bills this year. The Senate votes followed a disappointing day for anyone hoping to see the Michigan House accomplish anything.

In the House, attendance issues among Republicans and one Democratic lawmaker prevented the chamber from reaching a quorum this week that would have allowed it to take up bills. In a surprise move, leadership adjourned session until New Year’s Eve after failing to bring missing members onto the House floor.

The decision effectively rendered every bill the Senate had sent over to the House in an overnight session a week ago, dead.

“I am deeply disappointed that the House of Representatives called it quits while so many great pieces of legislation were ready for the green light,” Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said in a press release. “Legislators are tasked with the responsibility of using every tool available to advocate for their constituents and communities, and ‘frustrated’ is too light of a word to describe my dismay that the House failed to meet its obligations in this historic moment.” 

Brinks and other Senate Democrats channeled their frustration into dozens of votes on bills the House did successfully send to their chamber. Here’s how a few of them broke down as of 7 a.m. Friday morning:

Health care

Some of the bills now heading to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer concern what health insurance should require.

There was legislation to improve health for new moms and their babies and having insurance cover mental health screenings. Other bills concerned access to hormonal contraception.

Lawmakers also voted to get rid of the state’s work requirements for Medicaid.

Economic development

Senate lawmakers OK’d to a plan that would allow businesses to write off a portion of their research and development on their taxes. The policies had been long in the making but ran into trouble in the House earlier this year.

Supporters argued Michigan should join the rest of the Midwest in having an R&D tax credit, while opponents said it would be a case of “corporate welfare.”

Education

The Senate took up a handful of House bills concerning charter school management. One package would require schools to publicly display information about their operators. Another bill would have public school academies post salary information.

Senate bills meant to be part of the package that were before the House all but died when the House left Thursday.

The Senate also sent bills requiring schools to notify parents of Michigan’s safe storage gun laws to the governor.

Public safety

A little after 1 a.m. Friday morning, Democratic Senate leadership discharged dozens of bills from their committees to set them up for votes.

One of those bills would require the state health department to facilitate access to community violence prevention services for people on Medicaid.

Other bills would let corrections workers join the Michigan State Police retirement system. Supporters say it would help address staffing shortages. Opponents say it would add more stress to an already overtaxed system.

As of 7 a.m., the Senate had not taken up votes on bills at the center of some of the House controversy. That includes a plan that would benefit the Detroit Public Schools Community District and another one to create a public safety and violence prevention fund.