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[Sticky] Citizen Oversight Tools - MI Legislature

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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
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Updated June 15, 2023

Michigan already has a long bill list, and you know more are coming. (Last term saw 207 bill votes just for health policy.)

Bookmark your resources now to see what has gone down, and be ready for more:

Find your Michigan State Representative

Find your Michigan State Senator

 

Contact Governor Gretchen Whitmer at 517-335-7858.

Know another helpful resource? Add it in the comments.


   
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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
Topic starter  

And... the balance of power changes in Lansing.

Strategy, too.

In today's email Letter from the Editor appropriately entitled, "The glory of a gridlocked Lansing," Michigan Capitol Confidential insightfully comments on what this means for freedom, including healthcare freedom.

This week the House Democrats lost their 56-54 majority when two members, Kevin Coleman of Westland, and Lori Stone of Warren, won their mayoral races.

On Monday, Coleman and Stone will take office, reducing the House to 108 members and the party split to 54-54.

On Tuesday, the legislature will adjourn for the year, a month and a half early. Rather than negotiate or share power in order to obtain the necessary 55 votes to pass a bill, House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, opted to end the year early. Since it takes two to tango, the Senate followed suit.

Sine Die: Democrats lose majority; Legislature will adjourn for the year – Michigan Capitol Confidential

They say that politics makes strange bedfellows. This time it resulted in an empty Capitol. Good.

If this is a preview of the months to come, before elections for the Coleman and Stone seats can be held, it could save Michiganders a lot of money. These are the glory days, if we dare to see it.

Every day Lansing takes off work is another day when its tentacles cannot reach into your life, your child's classroom, or your wallet.

Lawmakers can return home to their districts and look their neighbors in the eye. Hear their feedback at coffee shops and town halls and office hours. Spend time with the people who sent them to Lansing. Maybe even remember that these are people they were elected to serve. Not their new friends in Lansing.

Enjoy these days of divided government. When it comes to Lansing, no news is good news.

Yours in gridlock,

James David Dickson

Michigan Capitol Confidential

 


   
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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
Topic starter  

The MiVotes website is back up, completely reengineered and ready for business.

Fewer functions than the old one, but blazingly fast. You should check it out and bookmark it.

https://www.michiganvotes.org/


   
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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
Topic starter  

The Michigan Legislature publishes a "brief description of the major steps of the legislative process a bill must go through before it is enacted into law."

Great primer of Michigan's bill process.

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/HowBillBecomesLaw.pdf


   
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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
Topic starter  

Michigan Capitol Confidential's Scott McClallen reports our state's financial health.

Excellent timing! We're approaching the end of the first post-Covid-funding term, when money flowed like water in Lansing. And inflation - I'm not even going to say it.

https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/news/michigan-earns-a-d-grade-for-finances

Michigan earns a ‘D’ grade for finances

Truth In Accounting ranks state 35th out of 50 for financial health

If Michigan needed to pay all its bills, every taxpayer would have to pay $7,600.

That’s according to a new analysis from Chicago-based Truth In Accounting, a think tank that analyzes government financial reports. Truth in Accounting gives the Wolverine State a “D” grade in its 15th annual Financial State of the States report.

According to the report’s A-through-F grading scale, any government with a ”taxpayer burden” between $5,000 and $20,000 earns a D. The report uses the term "taxpayer burden” to include the amount required to pay off all a state’s debt.

In 2023, Michigan’s finances improved by $12.5 billion when reported revenues exceeded expenses, and liabilities for pension and retiree health care decreased due to changes in actuarial assumptions. Michigan had $46.9 billion available to pay $75.1 billion worth of bills, leaving a shortfall of $28.2 billion. If that amount is divided by every Michigan taxpayer, each would pay $7,600. Most of that debt stems from unfunded pensions and other post-retirement benefits to public workers.

The largest improvement in the state’s financial condition related to decreases in unfunded pension and retiree health liabilities for the Michigan Public Schools Employees’ Retirement System. Those decreases occurred thanks to changes in the economic, demographic and other assumptions used to estimate future benefit payments. That good news evaporated this year after a drastic cut by the Legislature in funding for pension liabilities.

Michigan ranked 35th out of 50. The state isn’t alone. TIA says 27 states don’t have enough money to pay their bills.

For most states, this report is based on the audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports for fiscal year 2023, showing the most recent information available.

State fiscal mismanagement harms taxpayers, as well as public employees such as teachers, firefighters, and police officers, who count on pension and health care benefits for their retirement.

“Most states’ financial conditions improved in fiscal year 2023,” Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, said in a statement. “But the states should focus on bolstering their retirement systems so they can weather market downturns and other economic uncertainties in the future.”

The report features a broad range of state spending approaches, which yield a variety of results. Connecticut moved into last place because it needed more than $64.9 billion to pay its bills. If you were to divide that figure by the number of Connecticut taxpayers, the taxpayer burden is $44,300. Conversely, North Dakota had more than enough money to pay its bills, with a taxpayer surplus of $55,600.


   
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Abigail Nobel
(@mhf)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 751
Topic starter  

Open the Books has a tagline: "Every Dime. Online. In Real Time." It certainly seems to be accurate in the page entitled "Michigan's Checkbook." 

Every transaction, every vendor, since 2017. Annual totals, in billions of dollars.

Our dollars, which one can't help feeling would have been better spent by those who earned them.

The detail is incredible. You really have to see the listed businesses, the sheer number of checks the state writes in our name.

https://www.openthebooks.com/michigan-state-checkbook/


   
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