LANSING - Ever since the House threw on tie-bar amendments to a campaign finance measure and augmentation to the state's no-fault auto insurance, legislation that would change the Michigan Business Tax's gross receipts calculation to exclude taxes businesses remit to the state has hung in limbo. The House acted on SB 1038 prior to recessing
LANSING - The first publicly-released public opinion poll on the controversial Reform Michigan Government Now! proposal shows that 70 percent of those queried support the broad measure that would dramatically reform legislative redistricting, cut the number of legislators and Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges, and require financial disclosure. While Republican officials have pilloried
LANSING - A constitutional amendment offered by Rep. Mark Meadows (D-East Lansing) that would cut legislative pay, and deduct more for absences, as well as abolish term limits, will become the 16th joint resolution in the Legislature that could act as a counter for the Reform Michigan Government Now! ballot initiative, which seeks not only
LANSING �?? Michigan Senate members could act on legislation changing utility regulation this week, but it was unclear how big a chance there was that action would in fact take place. Indications from the office of Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) were that chances for action this week were "slim." However, at least one
LANSING - There is a possibility the full Senate may begin to act on legislation dealing with the renewable energy portfolio standards this week, Senate GOP sources said, but action on the main measure may wait as legislators try to develop a compromise proposal on the bill that critics have charged would allow the state's
LANSING - The current Michigan tax credits for the film industry are bringing business to the state, and the cost of those credits will not be known until next year, Michigan Economic Development Corporation officials said in urging the House Commerce Committee to hold off adjusting those credits. In the first nine weeks of the
LANSING - The Senate Fiscal Agency was asked to review the state budget to come up with a list of proposed cuts and efficiencies that could help offset revenue losses from the state eliminating the surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax, Senate Finance Committee chair Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Novi) said Tuesday. Cassis made the comments
MACKINAC ISLAND - Several of the proposals Governor Jennifer Granholm has made in the past three years have bogged down in the Legislature, so Friday she asked members of the Detroit Regional Chamber to help her get those issues moving. In one case she offered a direct payback for that help. Though she did not
WASHINGTON DC - Google co-founder Larry Page was in Washington Thursday trying to strum up support to open unused broadcast TV spectrum to wireless devices. Page came to D.C. to meet with Congressional leaders and the Federal Communications Commission to talk about allowing device manufacturers to design products that use spectrum known as "white space."