A state House committee voted Wednesday to advance legislation to blunt the impact of a Michigan Supreme Court decision on automatic life-without-parole sentences for young adults.

The bills could allow for longer sentences for 19- and 20-year-olds convicted of first-degree and felony murder, among other serious crimes, and allow prosecutors more time to review cases for potential resentencing.

“Life without parole was not given out lightly to begin with,” said Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sponsored the bills. “You have to remember these people are murderers.”

The court ruling released in April struck down automatic life without parole for 19- and 20-year-olds convicted of first-degree and felony murder as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. It followed a similar ruling applying to defendants 18 years old and younger.

Now, people who already got mandatory life sentences are being resentenced. Sometimes, that will be to multiple shorter prison terms. The current default in Michigan is for sentences to be served concurrently.

Lightner said concurrent prison terms are not tough enough. “There’s only justice given to the first victim,” she told Michigan Public Radio. “There’s nothing in law that says you have to stack the sentences consecutively, because we have concurrent sentencing.”

Consecutive years-long sentences would effectively be life in prison in some cases.

Deborah LaBelle, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said the Michigan Supreme Court decision is clear on young lifers. She said sentences of life with no chance of parole for young defendants should be rare.

“They should, when they have had the opportunity to mature and grow, be looked at again and determined whether in fact they have been rehabilitated and should be able to at some point rejoin the community,” she said.

LaBelle says the legislation would probably be found unconstitutional if signed into law because it would force consecutive sentences automatically without court hearings.

The bills, which now go to the House floor, were adopted on party-line votes.

The July 1 deadline for the Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to have a budget deal wrapped up arrives in just over a week and the House and Senate don’t appear to be close.

The House has yet to adopt its version of a budget package. But Republican House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) has proposed a stop-gap budget and called Democrats “not serious” about getting a budget done. Hall said this week he has hopes of getting education budgets out of the House soon, although earlier he suggested the House isn’t bound by hard budget deadlines.

In his weekly press conference Wednesday, Hall accused Democrats of not being serious about the budget.

“I’ve never had confidence that the Democrats, because of the people we’re working with, and you look at the quotes, that we’re going to get something done by July 1,” he said. “But I’ve always told people I’ll work in good faith to do it on some of them.”

The House did adopt a higher education budget last week with big reductions to state funding for the University of Michigan and Michigan State University while other public universities would get boosts. The House also adopted a school aid budget this past week. Both are a month behind the Senate’s actions on budgets. The House has yet to approve its versions of budget bills for state departments and agencies. That spending does interact with school, community college and university budgets in some areas.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said Thursday that Hall is single-handedly driving the state toward a budget crisis. She said it’s not reasonable to expect the Senate to rubber stamp House-adopted budgets on arrival.

“By its very nature, it must be negotiated by the House and the Senate and the governor, so it’s incredibly irresponsible to wait until the last minute,” she told the Michigan Public Radio Network. ” At the end of the day, this is very Trump-like behavior to cause a crisis and then to come in at the last second and pretend that they’re being heroic and pretend that it’s somebody else’s fault that it doesn’t get done.”

Local governments, community colleges, public universities and K-12 schools all have fiscal years that begin July 1. There is a state law that requires the Legislature to have their budgets wrapped up by then, but there are no specific consequences for missing that deadline.

The state’s fiscal year begins October 1. 

So-called “ghost guns” could become illegal in Michigan under new bills in the state House.

Those are firearms often 3D printed or assembled in kits that don’t have serial numbers, making them very hard for law enforcement to track.

One bill in the package would require owners of existing ghost guns to get them serialized within 18 months. Anyone who builds a firearm, unfinished frame, or receiver at home would have 10 days after finishing their project to get it serialized.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Morgan Foreman (D-Pittsfield Twp) said it’s a public safety issue more than it is a Second Amendment issue.

“No one needs an untraceable ghost gun. These weapons are designed to avoid detection, responsibility, and justice. These are tools for people who intend to do harm and get away with it,” Foreman said during a press conference Wednesday.

But critics of the bills say they don’t believe there’s a need for them.

Representative Phil Green (R-Millington) chairs the Michigan legislative Second Amendment Caucus. Green said it’d be better to have tougher enforcement of existing laws.

“We’re dealing with situations where we’re outlawing basically possession of something and then if they do something wrong, now there’s three or more crimes that you’ve committed. How about we just deal with what you did wrong?” Green said.

Under the legislation, building, selling, or having a firearm, frame, or receiver without a serial number would become a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Democrats introduced similar bills last term when their party controlled the entire legislative process but failed to pass. The bills are likely to have a tougher time now that Republicans run the House again.

Similar legislation in the Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate, however, is scheduled for a committee hearing in that chamber Thursday at noon.