LANSING – The Michigan Senate on Wednesday will take another shot at trying to send a bill expanding Medicaid with multiple reforms and provisions to Governor Rick Snyder.

There was much anticipation that the chamber would take HB 4714 up on Tuesday, but after several hours-long caucuses, it seemed Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) either did not have 13 votes in support or 13 votes in support of taking a vote on the bill, the provisions by which he has mostly run his term as majority leader.

Richardville had a leadership meeting after session adjourned at about 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday and did not talk to reporters about the situation. His spokesperson, Amber McCann, told reporters after session that she would not comment on a specific whip count, either. The legislation need only eight Republican votes assuming all 12 Democrats vote in support of the bill, but having less than at least 13 members of the Republican caucus willing to move forward has not been the mantra of Richardville too frequently.

“At this point we’re going to wait until the majority leader feels he is ready to take it up for a vote,” McCann said.

Though some legislation has been taken up without having a majority of the Republican caucus on board, another issue at hand is that Lt. Governor Brian Calley – who in previous instances served as the tiebreaker as the president of the Senate – is not expected to be present this week in the event that the chamber has a 19-19 tie.

And Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing), pulled aside by reporters late afternoon to give her thoughts on the outlook for the bill, pointed out such a predicament as well.

“As time continues to go by, one question that keeps coming up that no one has an answer for is, why isn’t the governor here? Or the lieutenant governor? This was supposedly one of the top agenda items for this administration,” Whitmer said. “They told the business community on Mackinac, they told everyone, this was a top issue and no one from the executive office is here.

“We’ve got a director (of the Department of Community Health) and he’s working his butt off, and so is Randy Richardville, but at the end of the day, we have a governor who is MIA and this is teetering on a vote or two or three,” she said.

She also said she and her caucus were “very discouraged” by the Republicans taking so long on Tuesday.

Media reports have circulated that a substitute is expected to be introduced for the bill, most likely by Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), but McCann did not have further details on-hand about that substitute and Mr. Kahn had vacated the chamber session. He did not return a phone call by Gongwer News Service seeking comment on the substitute, though he has previously told Gongwer of some of his ideas, such as offering more incentives for healthy behavior (See Gongwer Michigan Report, June 14, 2013).

Speaking on the bill as passed by the House sans the rumored substitute, Whitmer said she did still have some concerns about the current bill as written, specifically with regard to having recipients with an income level between 100 and 133 percent of the federal poverty guidelines pay up to 7 percent of “out-of-pocket” costs after 48-months in the program.

Whitmer also noted: “The 2 percent of the income co-pay is a graduated health care tax from my friends who don’t want a graduated income tax, but obviously while I would have written something vastly different if I held the gavel, I’m just hopeful that we can move this forward.”

Asked if the Senate would actually vote on the bill (as opposed to just not taking it up), McCann responded: “We will check in tomorrow morning and see whether or not we’re going to proceed with a vote.”

Whitmer said that while she does not like to set artificial deadlines on anything, “it would be a travesty if we went on break without completing this.”

Further complicating matters is that a pair of bills making provisions for school dissolutions, most pointedly for Buena Vista and Inkster school districts, also becomes eligible for voting by the Senate on Wednesday.

While Democrats have stated they will staunchly oppose the matter, the subject of HB 4813 and HB 4815 has been said to be yet another priority of the administration and one needing action before the Legislature adjourns for its summer break given that schools are currently finalizing their budgets for the upcoming school year and those two, at the very least, are not expected to have enough money to be open in the fall.

DISASTER AND EMERGENCY CONTINGENCY FUND: A bill (HB 4670 ) that would require funds for the state’s Disaster and Contingency Fund to maintain at a minimum level of $1 million and a maximum of $8.5 million passed the Senate 27-11 with Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren) the lone Democrat voting yes.

Currently the minimum level for the fund is $30,000 and the maximum is $750,000. The bill that passed the Senate also provides that any funds remaining at the end of a fiscal year would not lapse into the General Fund and would be carried forward to be available for subsequent years.

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