LANSING – The year 2013 started quietly for the 97th Legislature as is usually the case in the first year of a new legislative term, but quickly ramped up into another year of significant changes in Michigan law.
Gongwer reviewed the 277 public acts so far in 2013. There is one bill the Legislature must still present although it would not make this list if signed.
In ranking the statutes and expected statutes, Gongwer assessed the sweep of each law’s impact on the public, the controversy surrounding it, and grouped some similar statutes together.
10. EPIPENS: Legislation mandating the state’s public schools possess at least two epinephrine injection devices, known as EpiPens, to aid children who suffer sudden, severe allergic reactions, became a major headline issue during the year. PA 186 of 2013 and PA 187 of 2013 also requires several reports on the use of EpiPens at schools that will help provide an overall picture statewide of how serious a problem allergic reactions are in schools at a time when most schools no longer have a registered nurse on staff.
9. SALES TAX ON THE DIFFERENCE: For years, auto dealers, as well as boat dealers, had fought to remove the value of a trade-in when determining the sales tax a buyer paid when purchasing a new motor vehicle or boat. And for years, they got nowhere. The toughest loss of all was 2012, when both the House and Senate passed bills to phase out the value of a trade-in on such purchases only to see the bill die because of resistance from Governor Rick Snyder. That changed with PA 159 of 2013 and PA 160 of 2013 once legislators agreed to extend the period of the phase out to placate Mr. Snyder’s concerns about the budget ramifications.
8. NRC AUTHORITY ON GAME/WOLF HUNTING: Once animal rights activists mobilized to put a law passed in 2012 designating wolves as a game species for hunting on the 2014 ballot, supporters of hunting wolves counterattacked with legislation enabling the Natural Resources Commission to determine which species can be hunted. The NRC quickly moved to designate wolves as a game species, rendering the referendum moot.
Wolf supporters are gathering signatures to put the new law, PA 21, also on the ballot for referendum, but they were unable to stop the first wolf hunting season from taking place. And just in case the second law also gets suspended and put up for referendum, hunting activists are gathering signatures for a voter-initiated act that again lets the NRC designate game species but also contains an appropriation to immunize it from referendum.
7. SCHOOL DISSOLUTION: With two school districts, Buena Vista and Inkster, teetering into total collapse, the Legislature and Governor Rick Snyder brought out a rare hammer – dissolution. Via PA 96 of 2013, both districts were set up for dissolution with the remaining students dispersed to neighboring districts. Democrats howled at the loss of local control as a consequence of school funding cuts in previous years that have yet to be overcome while Republicans said there simply was no other choice given the flight of families in those districts to other schools.
6. CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Legislative Republicans took a bill accomplishing one of Snyder’s State of the State priorities – increasing campaign donation limits to bring them up to date after no changes in nearly 40 years – and amended it in a way that led to the governor reversing himself on a position he had as a candidate in 2010.
PA 252 of 2013 doubled the maximum contributions allowed to candidates and political action committees. But Senate Republicans, in one of the most dramatic legislative days of the year, hastily amended it to maintain anonymity for donors to groups running issue ads, the messages that praise or bash candidates without explicitly saying to vote for or against them, and thus avoiding regulation under the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.
They added that language because hours earlier their fellow Republican, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, shocked them by announcing without any real warning that she was going to seek an administrative rule mandating disclosure of donors and donation amounts to such efforts near elections. There was a memorable exchange between reporters and the bill sponsor, Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive), in which he responded to one question, “That’s your opinion.”
Snyder stated unequivocally in 2010 as a candidate that he thought groups sponsoring issue ads should have to disclose donors, but backpedaled in 2013, siding with allies who deemed the issue one of free speech, and signed the legislation, completing an embarrassing setback for Johnson.
5. BLUE CROSS: After Snyder shocked the Capitol with his decision in late 2012 to veto legislation that would have moved Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan into the Insurance Code and treated it like other insurers because of unrelated language limiting insurance coverage for abortions, supporters of the legislation overhauling the Blues’ structure moved quickly in 2013.
On March 18, Snyder signed PA 4 of 2013 and PA 5 of 2013, setting up the Blues’ conversion into a nonprofit mutual insurer and the Blues’ agreement to put $1.56 billion during the next 18 years into health care efforts overseen by an independent board. One area to watch in the coming years is what happens to Medigap rates. Critics of the legislation said they will skyrocket once a freeze on their rates expires after 2016.
4. COURT OF CLAIMS: Legislative Republicans raced to enact one of the biggest changes ever to Michigan’s judiciary when they took just 20 days to introduce and then have Governor Rick Snyder sign fundamental changes in how lawsuits against the state are handled in PA 164 of 2013.
Since 1978, the Court of Claims had been housed in the Ingham Circuit Court, handling all litigation against the state involving more than $1,000. The Ingham Circuit also handled a raft of non-monetary litigation against the state while other cases against state government took place in circuits across the state.
But starting November 12, four judges from the Court of Appeals, selected by the Supreme Court, will function as the Court of Claims and handle any litigation against the state. The move appeared a brazen power play by Republican majorities in the Legislature and Snyder to take the Ingham Circuit, loathed for years by the GOP for its Democratic-friendly rulings, out of the equation.
The Supreme Court took some of the partisan fervor out of the change when, contrary to expectations given the high court’s solid Republican majority, appointed two judges with Democratic backgrounds and two with Republican backgrounds to the new Court of Claims.
3. ABORTION INSURANCE: Once it became clear that anti-abortion activists and Governor Rick Snyder could not find common ground on legislation barring insurers from including abortion coverage in traditional medical coverage and instead requiring the purchase of an optional rider, activists began collecting signatures to put the proposal before the Legislature as a voter-initiated act. Doing so sidelined Mr. Snyder, who under the Constitution has no ability to veto such a measure.
Although the legislation debate leading up to PA 182 of 2013 was just one day, it featured the most memorable, most stunning speech by a legislator in memory when Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) revealed she had been raped while in college as a way of highlighting how the bill made no exception for rape or incest.
Insurers are revealing little at this point about how they will handle the new law when it takes effect March 14. Meanwhile, activists who support the legal right to an abortion are considering a petition drive to suspend the law and put it up for referendum on the 2014 ballot. They will need to decide quickly though because they must gather more than 161,000 signatures before March 14.
2. INDIGENT DEFENSE: A years-long effort to improve how Michigan provides criminal defense attorneys to those too poor to afford one culminated in overwhelming bipartisan support for PA 93 of 2013 and PA 94 of 2013.
Much work remains, but the laws set up a commission to recommend minimum standards on indigent defense, subject to approval by the Supreme Court, which have oversight of local indigent defense systems to ensure compliance. The laws also require the commission to ensure indigent defense counsels have an appropriate workload, in part through the power to set caseload controls and mandate that the state pick up all costs that exceed the counties’ current share. Snyder has estimated that cost will be in the millions. The issue brought together conservatives and liberals and even saw a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan share the stage with Snyder at the signing ceremony.
1. MEDICAID EXPANSION AND REFORM: Looking at Snyder’s first three years in office, there are two laws that stand out most for their overall sweep and impact. One is the massive tax overhaul of 2011. And the other is PA 107 of 2013, the expansion and reform of Medicaid.
Snyder took his time to decide whether to support the expansion of Medicaid to those with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2012 that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could not compel states into the expansion. But he ultimately decided to recommend the expansion – and enthusiastically.
The Republican majorities in the Legislature saw anything tied to the Affordable Care Act as toxic, but ultimately found a way they could support the expansion in exchange for several changes in how Medicaid functions.
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