Michigan Democrats grow wish lists for last month of full control. What to expect

• An ill-defined agenda means Democratic lawmakers are throwing a lot of policy proposals in the mix for the final weeks of legislative session
• Democrats are set to lose their House majority in 2025, ending two years of trifecta control in state government
• Legislative leaders have remained silent about what they expect to accomplish

LANSING — Lame-duck ideas are piling up. 

Michigan lawmakers introduced nearly 70 bills last week during the Legislature’s annual fall break, including proposals to require all newly-built homes to have capacity for electric vehicle charging and have the state government create a gold-backed cryptocurrency called “Michcoin.”

What has a legitimate chance of success will soon shake out when policymakers reconvene Tuesday. Many of the bills — Michcoin included — face long odds in the lame-duck session. But Democratic leaders haven’t finalized plans, and year-end pushes for policy change have been frequent and varied. 

One Democratic representative, state Rep. Phil Skaggs of Grand Rapids, introduced 32 bills on Nov. 26. He knows not all of them have a shot, he told Bridge Michigan, but they all represent policy initiatives he’s worked on, and he “would love to see a handful” passed.

“I’d be ecstatic with two handfuls,” he added. 

But with Democrats entering their final weeks in full control of the state Legislature, their tenuous coalition is beginning to fray.

Related:

• Tensions, absences threaten Democratic agenda in Michigan lame-duck Legislature
• With clock ticking, Michigan Dems eye ‘ghost gun,’ bump stock bans
• Gretchen Whitmer still seeking road funding ‘solution.’ Only GOP has a plan

Democrats hold a 56-seat majority in the House, meaning they’ll need every member for party-line votes. One Democrat reportedly could miss some work this week while recovering from surgery, however, and another has threatened not to attend if the legislative agenda is, in her view, inconsequential. 

And in the state Senate, where Democrats also hold a two-seat advantage, they can only afford to lose one lawmaker on partisan issues.

Here’s a rundown of some of the issues that could appear on the docket.

Economic development

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made it clear that funding more business incentives is her chief concern during Democrats’ final stretch of trifecta power. Without action, her Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund is set to expire next year.

She recently sent out an official email urging residents “to show your support for our economic development strategy” by contacting their state legislators.

But some progressives and Republicans alike have signaled they aren’t interested in anything of the sort. House Speaker-elect Matt Hall told reporters this week,  “roads is a higher priority than giving the money to corporations.”

Earlier this month the House passed a pair of new economic incentives, including tax credits for data centers and establishing research and development tax credits. Those bills will still need to go through the Senate before year’s end.

Minimum wage and sick leave 

Whether the Legislature is seeking to avert a service industry cataclysm or deny workers the wages they fought for, a battle over the future of Michigan’s minimum wage and sick leave laws has inspired bipartisan cooperation heading into the end of legislative session.

Earlier this year, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled a 2018 citizens initiative to raise wages was improperly amended, and the justices instituted a more aggressive schedule of pay increases, closer to what petitioners had sought. The court order would phase out the $3.93 tipped wage and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028.

The ruling set off a mad scramble as industry groups foresaw doom in rising labor costs and pushed for legislators to intervene. It’s an issue that doesn’t cut cleanly along partisan lines and would have nuanced economic impacts. 

A bipartisan proposal has emerged that would slow the minimum wage increase by a year, but it remains unclear what — if any — solution policymakers will finalize for mandatory earned sick leave and the future of the tipped wage credit.

Government transparency

Minority party gripes, and majority party delays may be cemented as a tradition when it comes to legislation on ethics reform and government transparency, which could again stall without action by the end of the year.

There are two facets: One is a nearly decade-long effort to expand Michigan’s open records law to the legislature and governor’s office, which has until now been exempt from any disclosure requirements. The Senate has passed expansion bills but they await a vote in the House.

The other is a package of bills sponsors call the BRITE Act, which would require a cooling-off period before ex-legislators can become lobbyists and require nonprofit “dark money” accounts to disclose ties to policymakers, among other things.

Its Democratic sponsors have characterized the legislation as a modest fraction of the reforms they’d like to see, and the bills have passed out of a House committee chaired by a lead sponsor, but their fate remains unclear.

Additional gun laws

In this legislative session, Democrats have created universal background checks, “red flag” and safe storage laws, but some lawmakers would like to see more done.

In the final weeks they’re eyeing proposals to ban "ghost guns," allow lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and ban bump stocks, among others.

A federal bump stock ban was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, and legislation was introduced to do that at the state level, but a crackdown on ghost guns does not yet have legislative language.

Most of the gun reform bills have yet to receive public hearings.

Road funding

Whitmer, after a failed attempt to raise the gas tax in 2019, has long maintained Michigan needs a long-term solution to its underfunded infrastructure.

Republicans are pushing for one at the end of this legislative session, and Democrats have introduced one bill that would allow earmarks to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund — a key economic development tool Whitmer has supported — to expire and instead be rerouted to roads.

House Republicans’ plan would explicitly end the SOAR earmarks and redirect nearly all corporate income tax dollars to roads and replace a gas sales tax with an equivalent gas tax increase earmarked to roads. 

Public school advocates, who receive funding from the sales tax, are setting off alarms over the GOP proposal, which has drawn criticism from Democrats. Legislative leaders and the governor have both declined to indicate if infrastructure funding will make the lame-duck agenda, though Whitmer has pushed Democrats to act without naming a specific mechanism to increase funding.

Criminal justice reforms

Reducing courts’ use of cash bail and “second look” legislation is being pushed by criminal justice reform advocates who’d like to see the state allow prisoners to petition the state for a reduced sentence. 

Rep. Kara Hope, a Holt Democrat and chair of the House Criminal Justice Committee, previously told Bridge she’s hoping to see at least one major criminal justice reform get signed into law before the end of the year.

Other bills in the category include broadening eligibility for compensation for wrongfully imprisoned Michiganders and capping juvenile prison sentences at 60 years.

Dark stores

Empty storefronts bringing down local tax revenues are in the crosshairs for some policymakers, too. Lawmakers say it’s cost the state billions of dollars as major retailers get their tax bills slashed. Advocates of its erasure argue the maneuver has resulted in teacher layoffs and shrunken budgets for local governments.

Maternity interventions

A series of policy interventions to aid expecting and new mothers is the focus of a “momnibus” package that passed the Senate earlier this fall. 

The bills would offer protections for breastfeeding mothers and formalize the work of birth-related caregivers, like midwives and doulas.

Authored by a trio of Democratic female state senators, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, has said she is motivated to see them become law.

What’s Left

Other Democrats have championed their own policy passion points, advocating for lame-duck progress. 

There are also some sweeping legislative packages on the table. There’s a series of 10 bills in the House that reform policing practices, and an 11-bill package in the Senate, that touch on evidence tampering, search warrants and strengthening laws around use of force polices and excessive force. 

“The ugly truth is, we have a problem with excessive force and abuse by police officers in our communities,” Rep. Donovan McKinney, D-Detroit, said in a statement. “We count on law enforcement officials to keep us safe and people should be able to call for help in a dire situation without fear of being harmed, or even killed, themselves.”

None of those bills have received a hearing, which is typically the first step toward advancing measures in the Legislature. 

Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, chairs the House education committee and wants to see bills including course requirement modification and support for school safety passed.

Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, chairs a housing subcommittee and is promoting a four-bill package that would cut red tape for housing construction.