MICHIGAN TRANSFORMATION: Democratic-controlled legislature seeks to right 40 years of GOP wrongs
For more than four decades, the Michigan state legislature has been under Republican rule, but now with Democrats at the helm, the legislature is ready to work for all Michiganders.
On Wednesday, Democrats unveiled their first bills for the 2023-2024 term, including legislation rolling back the state’s right-to-work statute and reinstating the prevailing wage.
“Michigan families are struggling,” House Speaker Joe Tate (D) of Detroit, said. “Our job is to recognize their struggles, acknowledge their hardships, and support meaningful change that increases their financial security and stability.”
Though the entirety of the bills won’t be publicly available until late next week, Democrats gave a preview of several pieces of priority legislation that will be put forth in the House and Senate chambers.
At the top of the list: repealing Michigan’s GOP-sponsored right-to-work legislation. Despite protests, then-Governor Rick Snyder (R) signed the bill into law over a decade ago.
Passed in 2012, the state’s Freedom to Work law went into effect in March 2013 and prohibited the use of union-security agreements.
The Freedom to Work legislation prevented labor contracts from requiring workers to join the union or pay its fees.
Michigan’s prevailing wage law was repealed by the GOP-led legislature in 2018, but the Democratic majority is slated to reinstate the mandate that state contractors pay workers benefits and union-scale wages.
In October 2021, Governor Gretchen Whitmer required contracts over $50,000 to be held to the prevailing wage condition. The Associated Builder and Contractors of Michigan launched a failed challenge to Gov. Whitmer’s order claiming that the governor’s plan “would be devastating to economic growth and the construction industry in Michigan.”
The judge disagreed.
Also on the agenda is an expansion of the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act – which prevents sexual and gender identity-based discrimination.
“These initial bills represent our collective commitment to expanding rights and opportunities for the people of Michigan,” according to Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D–Grand Rapids).
Michigan’s retirement tax costs constituents an average of $1,000 annually, State Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Township) said after introducing a bill to repeal the 2011 law. An increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit from 6% of the federal credit to 20% has also been proposed.
Dems are getting it done. With a left-leaning trifecta, the Michigan government is poised to overturn Republican policies that have hindered Michigan’s citizens by putting roadblocks to union membership, gutted protections for members of the LGBTQ community, and excessively taxed those on the tail end of their working careers.
“Our first and only order of business is to tackle the real challenges that folks are facing,” Sen. Brinks said, ” By implementing an agenda that makes Michigan an even better place to call home.”
Codifying reproductive healthcare rights, insuring equity in employment, and putting more money in the hands of retired and low-income citizens relying on the EITC to make ends meet are all steps in the right direction for Michiganders looking for a hand up – not hand out – in their pursuit of the American dream.
Original reporting by Beth LeBland ad Craig Mauger at The Detroit News.
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