United Way for Southeastern Michigan

The UWSEM public policy team is keeping a close eye on what's going on in Lansing, since we know that decisions in the Legislature will impact Education, Income, and Basic Needs here at home. The bills below would affect these issues in one way or another - so I'm keeping tabs on them as they make their way through the legislative process.


Education

• MI House: HB 4019. Would eliminate the cap on charter schools that can be authorized by any one state university.


• MI House: HB 4306. Would require school districts and ISDs to privatize custodial, transportation, and nutrition services.


• MI Senate: SB 131. Would allow districts to apply for certain waivers as a part of a performance-based contract.


• MI House and Senate: SB 153-158, HB 4214-4218. Would grant broader powers to Emergency Financial Managers of school districts or municipalities.


• MI House: HB 4190. Would require that the state legislature pass the School Aid budget by June 15 of each year.


• MI House: HB 4142, 4320, 4365. Various bills to require evaluations of teacher effectiveness and/or link evaluations more closely to tenure status.


• MI House: HB 4321. Would require that the salary of a teacher in suspension be placed in escrow.

Income

• MI Senate: SB 103. Would eliminate the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit.


• MI House: HB 4166. Would create opportunities for certain additional benefits for unemployed individuals who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits.

Basic Needs

MI House: HB 4092. Would allow recipients of public assistance to repay the full amount of benefits received; would also require school attendance of minor children in recipient households and participation in early childhood programs.

MI Senate: SB 109. Would prohibit use of Bridge Cards to withdraw cash at ATMs located in casinos.

MI House: HB 4015. Would create a system to link public assistance data with state employment tax data, allowing the state to search for social security numbers of recipients in the income tax and employment insurance databases.

MI House: HB 4260. Revises the look-back period to determine extended unemployment benefits.

Have an opinion about one of these bills? Leave me a comment!

*Please note that inclusion on the above list does not imply UWSEM support for a particular bill or policy. This list is for informative purposes only.