LANSING - The Michigan Senate on Wednesday passed and the Michigan House concurred in changes made to a bill that would extend the Health Insurance Claims Assessment through 2020 in a significant move to shore up the General Fund and especially Medicaid funding. The only change to HB 5105 was the date change of 2020
LANSING - Gongwer News Service is once again making available a smartphone and tablet app that provides easy-to-use information and analysis of this year's elections, with new features, improved functionality and a lower price from the first edition that debuted in the 2014 election cycle. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices,
LANSING - Five of the six bills creating an electronic filing system for courts and assigning fees were sent to Governor Rick Snyder on Tuesday. SB 531, SB 532 and SB 533 cleared the House 100-6, 97-8 and 98-8, respectively. The Senate then concurred in House changes sending the bills to Snyder. HB 5028, HB
LANSING - A Michigan Senate committee meeting has been scheduled for this week for a three-bill package that would give exemptions to sales, use and property taxes for a major data center based out of Nevada looking to expand in the Grand Rapids area. The Senate Michigan Competitiveness Committee is scheduled to meet at 8
LANSING - The Michigan Department of State will be unable to implement the vehicle registration fee changes Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law this week to raise funding for roads unless Hewlett Packard turns over the source code for the troubled information technology project to upgrade secretary of state online services, officials say. Attorneys for the
LANSING - It was a quick day in the Senate for one of the first bills the chamber introduced this year to eliminate straight-ticket voting, as it cleared a Senate committee Tuesday morning and the full chamber by the evening. The bill, SB 13, would eliminate the ability for voters to vote for all the candidates
LANSING - Michigan's gas tax revenues were down more than $120 Million to $820.6 million in fiscal year 2013-14 since their peak more than a decade before, a report by the Department of Treasury shows. During the same time frame, total gasoline usage is down more than 600,000 gallons annually. What is now the state's
LANSING - New rules proposed by the Department of Environmental Quality would deregulate too many additional chemicals, the Michigan Environmental Council said on releasing its comments on the proposal. The DEQ announced Monday that it had opened the public comment period on the rules (ORR 2014-153 and 2014-154). The changes cover public notice and hearing provisions as well
LANSING - The petition submitted by the group seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage fell far below the minimum number of signatures from registered voters needed to bring the proposal before the Legislature, the group defending prevailing wage said Monday. Not only did Michigan Prevails file a challenge with the Department of State to the
LANSING - While the Michigan Department of State and Hewlett Packard await continuation of a court hearing on their dispute over how they managed the Business Application Modernization project, HP has returned its workers to the state, a department spokesperson said. The state terminated its contract with HP and then sued the company. HP pulled
