Advocacy

Gov. Rick Snyder Friday signed into law changes to the minimum wage and paid sick leave initiatives favored by the GOP Legislature and the business community.

Signatures for ballot proposals would be capped for each congressional district at 15 percent of the total number of signatures submitted -- and anything beyond that would be thrown out -- under legislation that leapt from committee and was approved by the House, 60-49, Wednesday.

The minimum wage would go to $12.05, not $12, by 2030, and tipped workers would be paid 38 percent of the regular minimum wage, under amended minimum wage and paid sick leave bills that cleared the House, were concurred in the Senate and sent to Gov. Rick Snyder.

The full Senate voted Thursday to create a new six-member, bipartisan campaign finance regulation commission, removing those enforcement powers from the Secretary of State (SOS).

Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law changes to the minimum wage and paid sick leave initiatives last Friday. With the original legislation being extremely burdensome to Michigan’s business community, a coalition of Michigan job providers including the Small Business Association of Michigan formed “Small Business for a Better Michigan” to advise the legislature to make needed changes to the burdensome legislation.

The Senate's changes to the minimum wage initiative not only keeps the tip credit system around, but unchains any future increases after 2030 from inflationary increases, meaning the minimum wage would stay frozen at $12 an hour after 2030.

Nearly 250,000 Michigan "Flow-Through" business organized as S Corporations or partnerships could claim state income tax exemptions under legislation that the Senate unanimously passed Thursday.

The bird state Capitol folks are thinking about these days isn't turkey.

It's lame duck, that special time when difficult policies are shoved through under the cover of Yule-time joy and out-going legislators feeling free to support bills with reduced fear of political consequences.