Bills to expand Michigan open records laws to apply to the governor’s office and lawmakers were among the first introduced at the start of the new legislative session Wednesday.
The policies were among the many that had passed the Michigan Senate last session but died in the House of Representatives during the final days of last year.
Package co-sponsor Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) has worked on the Freedom of Information Act expansion for years.
Moss said he feels optimistic about its chances despite party control in the Michigan House switching from Democrats back to Republicans this session.
“This is now something that has only passed out of a Democratic controlled Senate and only passed out of a Republican controlled House. I'm hopeful that maybe this is the right mechanics that are in place now to get it done,” Moss told reporters.
Between Moss and Senator Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Twp), the policy has bipartisan sponsorship.
The bills were set up Wednesday to skip the committee process in the state Senate, meaning they could potentially be voted on as early as next week if lawmakers chose.
Moss said there’s little more to add to discussions about the matter.
“This has got to be the most vetted policy that's still lingering in this town. And I think that by not only prioritizing it as Senate bills one and two, but by sending it directly to the floor, we are signaling how important this is,” Moss said.
Senate Democrats also unveiled their plan Wednesday for the future of the state’s minimum wage and sick leave laws.
That’s ahead of a policy shift scheduled for February.
Both the scheduled increase and the Democrats’ plan would gradually increase pay for both tipped and non-tipped workers.
The bills would gradually bump the overall minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, quicker than the scheduled timeline. But it would cap the minimum wage for tipped workers at 60% of what non-tipped workers make, instead of the current plan to create parity by 2030.
Business groups had pushed lawmakers to scale back the increase.
Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp) said he hasn’t fully looked at the Democrats’ proposal yet. But he said keeping the tipped wage credit is a top priority.
“Over the last several decades, over the last 70 years, we've had a whole industry built around this. And my number one priority is how do you save the 50,000 restaurant jobs in the state of Michigan? And so I'm willing to work with anybody anyhow to find that solution as we go into it,” Nesbitt told reporters.
In the Michigan House, Republicans are also naming minimum wage and sick leave as top priorities.
