Under the Dome
Capitol Update for April 3 through May 31, 2010
Cynthia Ann Paul
Detroit Living Wage Ordinance- The Michigan Supreme Court denied oral argument without explanation in a two-sentence decision, with only Justice Kelly dissenting. The legal attorneys who represented the plaintiffs and the amicus curiae in this case (including me) held a conference call on this matter to strategize on our next move. After a painful and disheartening conversation, there was consensus that there were no grounds to proceed w/ a request for reconsideration or to appeal to the federal level. Because it was a denial of oral argument on a non-published Court of Appeals case, it was not precedent setting and applied to only the Detroit Living Wage case. I subsequently followed up w/ Dave Reynolds and Paul Desonne with NELP to see if they had any unique angle on the case to no avail. There have been news articles about a potential challenge to the Ann Arbor living wage.
Railway Labor Act Change-In the Middle of May, the National Mediation Board (NMB) -- which is tasked with overseeing labor-management relations under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) -- issued a ruling making elections for union representation more democratic. Under the RLA (which governs railroads and airlines), workers who did not cast votes in an election were counted as having voted against unionization. Now, however, they will simply not be counted at all, like non-voters in any election for political office. The change brings the RLA's process into line with elections held under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which covers most workplaces.
SEIU Local 517m Lobby Day- Held on May 6th and was more successful than ever. We started out with a press conference with the Michigan League for Human Services and A Better Michigan Future on our state's need for revenue solutions to fix our budget deficit. In particular, we concentrated on the need for the closure of outdated tax loopholes and the need to review all state contracts, highlighting that Rep. Roberts Public Service Accountability Act (HB 4892). SEIU Local 517M President, Bill Ruhf, and Local 517M member, Amy Lipset did a wonderful job at the press conference.
We lobbied on the issues of the need to close these outdated tax loopholes and use it for local funding, increasing the gas and diesel tax, passing the Public Service Accountability Act and opposing the bills that mandate school districts bid out food and custodial work (SB 1074) to pool and contract out transportation services (SB 1229). We also presented Senate Dems (except for Switalski) a "thank you" card for their "no" vote on SCR 35. For more background information on all four of these issues please see the state council web page at http://www.seiumi.org/SEIU_Local_517M_Third_Annual_Lobby_Day.aspx. To take action on the BSD system for the four issues, please visit http://seiumi.seiu.org/page/speakout/localfunding; http://seiumi.seiu.org/page/speakout/gastax; http://seiumi.seiu.org/page/speakout/conmandate and http://seiumi.seiu.org/page/speakout/PSA.
49 legislators from both sides of the isle also joined us for lunch. We were also joined by Department of Transportation Liaison (Rob DeCook) to talk about the importance of increasing the gas tax to preserve Michigan's infrastructure and economy.
Revenue Estimating Conference- The state Treasurer and the heads of the Senate and House fiscal agencies gathered w/ economists and reach a consensus for the revenue estimates. Their consensus reveals a new budget gap of $243.5 million for the 2010 budget. For the School Aid Fund, the three agreed that the revenues are up by $291.8 million from the January estimate. School aid and General fund combined gives an increase of $48.3 million more than the January conference. It is caused by a sharp decline in business tax collections for the recent fall in revenue. This means that more revenue must be found or more programs and services must be cut to balance the current year's budget. The Legislature, which has been working to address an anticipated $1.8 billion budget gap for the 2011 budget. State Treasurer Bob Kleine said that Michigan has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. Michigan has been in a budget-cutting mode for much of the last decade. Most recently, deep cuts have been made to health care, public safety and education.
The Legislature passed the Conference Report for School Employee Retirement (SB 1227) and the Governor Signed It. Its main components include-
1. It provides that school employees who are already eligible to retire can retire with a 1.6 multiplier, and employees who have a combined age and years of service totaling 80 may retire with a 1.55 multiplier.
2. After July 1st, all school employees will have to pay 3% of their salary into an IRS 115 Trust for retiree healthcare benefits (House Bill 4073) which was amended in the Senate to remove any contractual right to the benefits for retirees.
3. The conference committee adopted the Senate's new "hybrid" pension plan, with a blending of defined benefit and defined contribution (tier 2 components). Under this plan a person would not be eligible to receive pension benefits until age 60, and would have been required to have worked at least 10 years as a public school employee. An employee would have to contribute 510 annually, plus, 7.3% of their salary above $15,000 to their defined benefit in addition to their Tier 2 DC benefits of 2% of their salary, unless they elect otherwise. The employer would match this by 50% (i.e. 1% match into the DC account. An employee could contribute more than 2% of their salary, but the employer would not be required to match.
4. Third party contractual and charter school employees are not required to join MPSERS. It closes the loophole that allowed contractual retirees and independent contractor retirees to get around the earnings limitations (1/3 of FAC). If a retiree exceeds the earnings cap (1/3 of FAC) their pension and health care benefits will be suspended until their current employment ceases. Double dipping light.
SB 1227 passed the Senate by a vote of 21/14 and passed the House by a vote of 56/45. HB 4073 passed the Senate by a vote of 23/10 and the House77/24. For more information on this bill package and more detail on this vote count, please visit http://seiumi.org/School_Retirement_Legislation.aspx. The Governor signed both SB 1227 as PA 75 and HB 4073 PA 77 on May 19th.
A similar bill for state employee retirement is rumored to move in the very near future.
The House Passed and the Senate Just Started Taking up the Public Private Partnership (P3) Legislation (HB 4961)- This allows MDOT to enter into public private agreements (P3s) to design, construct, operate or maintain a public transportation facility with the approval of the Transportation Commission. It specifies the conditions that any public private agreement would have to meeting; and permits a public private agreement to provide user fees and ancillary charges. It provides that the public transportation facility to revert from the concessionaire to MDOT at the end of the agreement. It provides for a public private agreement for the new DRIC. It permits MDOT to solicit proposal or receive unsolicited proposals for a public private agreement and require the MDOT to use a competitive selection process to the extent practicable and permits MDOT to issue and sell bonds or notes to develop, acquire, construct, finance, and maintain a public transportation facility. This was a very contentious piece of legislation that labor worked very well with the Department of Transportation in crafting language that provides a lot of oversight and public input on these public private partnership agreements before and during the tenure their tenure and requires all concessionaire to comply with all federal and state laws and regulations. Also, a concessionaires' labor and workplace safety record will be considered when evaluating bids. Before any P3 is entered into the must do a thorough cost benefit analysis, including risk transfer or allocation assessment and consider hidden costs to determine whether the P3 is the most economically beneficial way to do the proposed project. The Department must post this analysis and its assumptions on their web page and approved by the Transportation Commission. The Transportation Commission will be required to hold a public hearing every five years to receive public input and updates on a P3 during its tenure. Also, any employees of the transportation authority set up to operate and maintain a P3 will be state employees, most likely SEIU Local 517m engineers and technicians. Some of the issues still remaining are the length of a P3 (which can be 50years and w/ no automatic approval) and oversight and approval being in the Transportation Commission rather than the state legislators. This passed the House by a vote of 56-51 on May 26th.
Community Benefits Clears House Transportation Committee and Passes the House-House Bill 6128 provides in large scale economic P3 projects like DRIC would have to come with a community benefits agreement that provides job training, environmental protections and housing and other amenities to communities. This passed the House 55-51 on May 26th.
House Regulatory Reform Committee takes up House version of the SEIU Healthcare Michigan's Codification- House Bill 6195 would place the Michigan Quality Community Care Council into state law, it is now operating as a pilot program under an executive order. The council is responsible for referring disabled and elderly people to home care workers that match the needs of those in need of home care. This was reported out of the House Regulatory Reform committee May 26th.
Codification Sub Passed Out of Senate Committee, Sneakily- Without any notice, the Senate Senior Citizens and Veterans Affairs Committee took up and reported out a completely different substitute of the codification bill (SB 731) that eliminates the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, replacing it with a new council called the Michigan Home Help Advisory Council. It furthermore provides that home help workers are not state employees and are exclusively employed by the home help consumer and that this act should not be interpreted to allow for the unionization of home help workers. This S-3 version has been re-referred to the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
The New Substitute for the Healthcare Pooling Plan- Speaker Dillon unveiled his new version of his healthcare pooling plan. It allows public employee unions to bargain over whether they join a statewide health insurance pool for all public employees and retirees but requires employees that opt out of the pool, if it is cheaper than their local plan, to pay the difference between those costs. It allows insurance premiums to be different for employees based on where they work in the state and requires the board to get the claims and demographic data from public employers within 210 days. It maintains the very politicized 13-member board overseeing the statewide pool, but allows them to create subcommittees to garner more input on aspects of healthcare coverage. It requires savings of at least $100 million for a pool to actually be created. For more information please visit http://www.seiumi.org/Public_Employee_Healthcare_Pooling_Plan.aspx.
Public Employees pay 20% of the Healthcare Costs Clears Senate Reforms and Restructuring Committee- Senate Bill 1046 introduced by Senator Jansen requires all public employers not pay more than 80% of their employees health insurance costs and employees would have to pay minimally 20% of their health care costs, 15% if the plans contain wellness and incentives for healthy living and 10% if the plan contains a high deductible plan with a health savings account. This was reported out of committee and is currently on the Senate Floor.
Public Employers May Purchase in the State Health Care Plan Clears Committee- Senate Bill 1047- introduced by Senator Sanborn allows all public employers to purchase employee healthcare coverage through the state healthcare plans offered to state employees. Similar to Governor Granholm's Executive Directive 2010-1, which mandates DMB to identify barriers as to why local municipalities have not already done this. This was reported out of the Senate Reforms and Restructuring Committee and is currently on the Senate floor.
State Legislators Control Public Employee Healthcare Costs Clears Committee-SJR P introduced by Senator Jansen amends the state constitution to require any health benefits offered to state employees, local government employees (including school districts), employees of community colleges and universities to conform to the cost allocation established by state law, i.e., state legislators. This was reported out of the Senate Reforms and Restructuring Committee and is currently on the Senate floor.
State Reorganization Clears Committee- Senate Bill 1075 introduced by Senator Bishop, reduces the number of state departments from 15 to 11. It would combine Department of Community Health w/ Department of Human Services into a new Department of Health and Human Services, it also combines Corrections, Military and Veterans Affairs and State Police into the new Department of Public Safety. It also prohibits departments from implementing any rules and regulations more stringent than federal rules and regulations. This was reported out of Committee and is current on the Senate floor.
School Food and Custodial Bid Mandate Clears Committee- The Senate Committee on Govt. Reforms and Restructuring reported out SB 1074, which mandates that school districts competitively bid out their food and custodial work and it is currently is on the Senate floor.
Senate Committee on Reforms and Restructuring Committee Took up School District Spending Limits- Senate Bill 1073, which mandates that school districts not spend more than 28% of their budget on non-instructional support staff. If school districts do spend more than 28%, than they will lose 5% of their school aid funding. This was brought up in committee for discussion purposes only and currently remains in committee.
House Education Committee reports out Anti-Bullying Legislation- House Bill 4580 would require school districts to come up with anti-bullying policies. If passed and signed into law Michigan would join 42 other states that have anti-bullying laws. This was reported out of House Education Committee by a vote of 16-3, with Reps. Amash, Justin and McMillin voting against it. Anti-Bullying bill passes the House 76-29.
House Education Committee took up and Reported Out a Bill Requiring School Contractors pay into the MPSERS system- House Bill 6005 requires school contractors to pay into the MPSERS system in an effort to level the playing field between contract and school employees and to stave off privatization of school employee jobs. It is currently on the House floor.
The House Education Committee took up and Reported Superintendent Sharing Bill Package- The House Education Committee reported out a package of bills that removes conflict of interest barriers for school districts and intermediate school districts to share school superintendents, HBs 6008, 6009 and 6010. This is currently on the House floor.
The House Education Committee Took up Superintendent Salary Cap- HB 6004 caps the salary of school superintendents to the level of the state superintendent of public instruction, Flanagan. Testimony was taken on this cap but it still remains in committee.
The House Education Committee Took up School Reserve Spend Down- HB 5963 allows school districts to only keep 15% of their general revenues in the bank. Testimony was taken on this bill but it still remains in committee.
Hospital, Nursing Home Cuts Restored- The House passed a supplemental budget the end of April that would restore the 4% funding cut to hospitals and nursing homes. The state received more Quality Assessment Assurance Program (QAAP) funding, which allowed the state to receive more federal funds. This constitutes $101.5 million of the $106 million Supplemental, House Bill 5409. This passed the House 87-19
The House Concurs w/ Senate Changes To Texting While Driving- The Senate made it a primary offense to text while driving, instead of a secondary offense like the originally house passed version. HB 4394. Being a primary offense, a police officer could pull someone over for texting, a secondary offense a police officer would have to pull someone over for another traffic violation. It passed the House 74-33 on April 20th. The House also tie-barred the legislation to HB 4370 that would allow a person to be ticketed for the offense, but not have any points added to their license, this passed the House 101-6. The House also passed legislation that would specify that the new fines generated from the texting ban would go into the general fund to offset reductions in driver responsibility fees, SB 468, it passed the House 89-19. The Senate stripped out the language using the fees generated by the package to offset the driver responsibility fees, SB 468, House still garnered support for this amended version of SB 468. The Governor signed texting while driving on Oprah Winfrey show, SB 468- PA 59, House Bill 4370- PA 58 and HB 4394 - PA 60.
House Ethics and Elections Committee Taking up Bill Package to Counter Citizens United Supreme Court Case- The package would require corporations to disclose what they spent and take credit for any independent expenditures by reporting them. Corporations would also be required to have approval of investors to spend money on political campaigns and those investors could be liable for fines if there are any campaign finance violations. Any company with foreign investors would not be able to make campaign contributions, nor would any receiving state or federal grants or contracts. Ads sponsored by a company or union would have to clearly state the source of the ad, including disclaimer by the chief executive (HBs 6182, 6183, 6184, 6185, 6186, 6187 and 6188). -Working w/ the House Dems. to make sure that this package applies only to corporations.
The Department of Education Completed and Submitted its Application for the Second Round of "Race to the Top" federal money ahead of the deadline to seek $400 million in federal education reform grants.
Lieutenant Colonel Eddie Washington will become director of the State Police Starting May 23rd, replacing Peter Munoz who leaves for a post as federal marshal. Washington has been with the Department since 1984 as a trooper.
Governor Granholm called a special election to file the vacant 95th House Seat to coincide with the general election. This seat was previously held by Rep. Coularis who left to become a lobbyist for Dow Chemical.
Board of Canvassers Approves Form for Health Care Petitioners to "Opt out” of Federal Healthcare Reform- On April 16th, the Board of Canvassers approved the form of the petition being circulated by the Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom to allow the state to opt out of the new federal health care plan. The group is hoping to collect 500,000 signatures to be sure it has the 380,000 valid signatures needed.
President Obama choose Elena Kagan to replace Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court and now she is giong through the federal appointment process.