Gov. Rick Snyder has released thousands of pages of executive office emails voluntarily in the wake of the Flint water crisis, but legislation pending in the House would make disclosures routine by subjecting the governor to the Freedom of Information Act.
If you install a wheelchair ramp, grab bars or even a bathroom on your main floor, you could be on your way to as much as a $5,000 tax credit, depending on whether a bill passed in the state Senate becomes law.
On an afternoon when gun-toting Michiganders descended on Lansing for “Open Carry” day, a pair of Michigan lawmakers introduced legislation that would flip the script on the current rules by banning guns, but not signs in the state Capitol.
As it stands today you can openly carry a firearm, but not a sign, into the state capitol. But two Democratic Representatives are seeking to flip which of those two items are permissible.
Two state House Democrats on Wednesday announced legislation seeking to ban firearms in state government buildings but allow political signs in those places.
The proposal would reverse longstanding rules at the Michigan Capitol, where signs are banned but guns are allowed.
Elected municipal officials from the city of Lathrup Village and the villages of Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms and Franklin in Southfield Township announced their support of Rep. Jeremy Moss’ re-election bid.
[The following is a Detroit Free Press editorial by Jeremy Moss]
Southfield is not a community under state emergency management – but you wouldn’t know it based on a recent Michigan Department of Environmental Quality decision.
The same MDEQ of Flint water crisis infamy approved a permit this month to drill for oil at the corner of 9 Mile and Evergreen Road despite the fact that the Southfield City Council issued a lawful moratorium against such activity within the city’s borders.
Southfield’s mayor, seven-member council, clerk and treasurer jointly announced their endorsement of Rep. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who is seeking a second term in the Michigan House of Representatives.
A new bill likely heading to the Michigan House would strengthen the 6-month window to collect signatures for state ballot measures, and may weaken initiative supporters' chances to make it to the ballot.
Senate Bill 776 was introduced on February 10 and passed in the Senate on March 10.
The Flint water crisis and a sex scandal surrounding two former lawmakers may not have been the catalyst for a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to agree that more transparency in state government is timely and necessary, but those crises have heightened the need to open up lawmakers and the governor’s office to disclosure of records.
