All legislators took a one-week break this week, but the Senate returns on June 30 for a few weeks as it considers legislation to improve roads. Senators have promised to stay in town to come up with a roads plan before breaking for summer. The House broke for the summer last week and plans to return for a week in mid-July and mid-August to review a Senate roads plan if one materializes. (See roads item below.)
Legislators put the final stamp of approval last week on a bill designed to protect private businesses from a patchwork of local labor laws. The bill, HB 4052, prohibits local units of government from adopting, enforcing or administering a local ordinance, policy or resolution that:
The legislation underwent several edits and went back and forth between the two chambers twice before it was enrolled on Wednesday and sent to the governor’s desk for his signature. Changes made to the bill were designed to protect local and state governments’ ability to set parameters on projects,contracts and tax credits. Another change grandfathered local prevailing wage laws adopted before January 1, 2015. The final changes were requested by the administration and should almost guarantee the governor will sign the bill into law.
Approval of the legislation was a major victory for all retailers and will protect them from arbitrary local rules that increase the cost of doing business. MRA was strongly supportive of the legislation and testified in support of the bill in the Senate Michigan Competitiveness Committee on June 11. Retailers are free to set their own wage and benefit policies with employees. The bill continues efforts to improve Michigan’s business climate by having only one set of wage and benefitrules to follow in Michigan.
The Michigan Senate and House approved changes last Thursday to HB 4205, a vehicle bill used to push back the effective date for pharmacy technician licensing to October 1, 2015, from June 30, 2015. MRA worked closely with the department and legislators to get the last-minute change approved by lawmakers before the summer break and June 30 deadline.
The pushback was proposed after a perfect storm of events prevented any possibility that the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and the Bureau of Professional Licensing would be able to meet the deadline. Originally, the department estimated approximately 13,000 technicians would apply for licensure. Instead, it received 20,000-30,000 applications. Combined with a perfect storm of internal problems, the only solution was to move back the date.
There are several other technical changes MRA will work on getting approved before October 1. Those changes include clarifying the locations a limited license technician can work, GED/high school diploma concerns, and extending the timeframe for a temporary technician to obtain 600 hours of training. Both the House and Senate have agreed to work toward adopting those additional changes before October 1.
We do expect the governor to sign the bill before June 30, and we will send an alert once the bill is signed into law. The text of the bill can be viewed here (the tech change is on page 10, line 7).
The House passed on June 10 its new roads plan, crafted after the resounding defeat of Proposal 1 on May 5. The 12-bill package includes some pieces of the original plan that would have been tied to Proposal 1’s success: competitive bidding and road warranties. It would also look to reprioritize existing funds and increase registration fees for electric vehicles to pay for the much-needed infrastructure repairs.
The House Fiscal Agency calculates the bill could bring in closer to $1.2 billion instead of the $1.05 billion originally suggested. While some pieces of the plan received bipartisan support, most of the plan was passed by a majority of House Republicans. While House passage of a plan is considered a good first step, the Senate did not take immediate action on the House plan. The bills were referred to the Senate Government Operations Committee.
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