Leg Returns on Tuesday, November 29th

Back from a deer hunting and Thanksgiving break the Legislature looks like it will do unemployment insurance reform. If state does not act soon it will face massive federal penalities and the program in Michigan could implode. Of course the unemployment insurance fund is in trouble because of huge layoffs since 2008 in auto industry and other Michigan based businesses.

Senate and House both have bills and are holding joint hearings--somewhat rare.

Could be the only issue that Gov and the Leg move forward in the brief December session. Might be some action on more K-12 reform and charter school cap lifting, but not sure at this point. More news this week.

Seems positive that there will be no action on issues such as The Bridge to Canada, Right to Work, electric dereg etc....

More to come.

Gov wins in Sup Ct

Court said Gov's pension tax is okay. But said no to the imposition of " progressive income tax" provisions.

Now with that done what does Gov and legislature do ith Gov's agenda in final 30 days of the 2011 session?

Charter cap removal ? Infrastructure tax vehicle registrations? Higher Ed reforms vi funding formula ? More K-12 reforms?

Lot has been done in this 2012 session- biggest list in a decade. Maybe Gov should just let leg go home, talk to voters and come back in Jan 2012 and get back to work.

Michigan State Legislature for the Week of April 25th

We expect the legislature to continue to pass first house budget bills so they can sit in the opposite house until the legislative leaders can reach a compromise on budget cuts, tax cuts, tax increases and/or tax shifts. Until they do this there can be no resolution or passage of the budget bills.

Many, many capitol observers believe that the legislature will not do anything on the state budget until AFTER the November elections and more and more observers believe that they will wait until the new Governor and new legislature is sworn into office in 2011.

Very little other legislative action scheduled and very few major pieces of legislation expected to move thru the legislature this week.