LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – This week in Michigan’s Capitol, lawmakers passed over a dozen bills. The legislation ranges from sending aid to Northern Michigan, increasing state security, and continuing work on the next state budget.
Typically, lawmakers are buckling down on the state budget this time of year. The governor gave her proposal, outlining $87 billion in funding, while the state Senate bills are shaping up to be even larger. However, this week the Speaker of the House, Representative Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), said his plan might even be smaller than last year’s $82 billion budget.
“We have an aspirational goal of getting a budget done, I think your question was if I’m going to commit to getting it done. I’m not going to commit to getting it done, but we are going to try.” Hall said. “If we’re going to reverse the democrat income tax hike, it’s got to be lower than the current budget. We’re not just tacking on 3% on the top of what we did last year. We’re evaluating every program in the budget for return on investment. That’s hard.”
The reps took votes on 14 different bills, including legislation aimed at helping northern michigan recover from the March ice storms. The legislation would send $100 million to northern Michigan communities, many of which exhausted their reserves cleaning up and restoring power last month. The bills would also forgive school days missed by students as a result of the storms.
Representatives passed two bills Wednesday that create cutouts in Michigan energy laws for the natural gas units in the U.P.
House Republicans are working to increase national security in Michigan, passing six bills aimed at preventing foreign entities from gaining access to things like state land and technology.
