Legislative Update 11-22-24

Written by Derek Melot on November 22, 2024. Posted in Blog, Events, Legislative, MAC news, MACSC, Marketing, NACo

MAC letter campaign on revenue sharing is off to fast start

A letter-writing campaign started by MAC this week is gaining momentum to urge Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and legislative leaders to act on Revenue Sharing Trust Fund legislation before the end of the legislative term.

As of 9 a.m. on Friday, MAC had received 78 different letters from leaders in Allegan, Baraga, Branch, Cass, Eaton, Gogebic, Ionia, Iron, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, Mackinac, Mecosta, Montmorency, Saginaw, Wayne and Wexford counties.

“This is a great response in just a few days,” said Governmental Affairs Director Deena Bosworth. “And we thank those who have acted. But our goal is to gather at least 300 such letters by Dec. 2 to properly reflect the local support for revenue sharing reform.”

The letters, designed by MAC, detail the case for House Bills 4274-75, which would create a dedicated Revenue Sharing Trust Fund for counties. See details and talking points by clicking here.

“It is critical that we get as many letters of support as possible,” Bosworth explained. “The bills will not move through the process in lame duck without a significant campaign. The governor is the biggest obstacle to overcome.

“We know that we have the votes in the Senate to support this and put it on the governor’s desk,” Bosworth added. “The hold up is actually getting them up for a vote. … And the stumbling block that we’re hearing is that we need the governor to actually ask the Legislature to do this, to make it an item that she would like to see done in the lame duck session.”

Commissioners, if you have not already done so, please coordinate with your county administrator in the next few days to ensure a letter of support from you is sent in.

Please direct any questions about the RSTF legislation to bosworth@micounties.org.

GOP leader unveils $2.7B road plan; MAC studying proposal

A $2.7 billion road funding plan surfaced in Lansing Friday, courtesy of the expected 2025 speaker of the house, Rep. Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo).

Hall presented this proposal in response to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s call for the House to find a solution to the road funding crisis during the current “lame duck” legislative session. Whitmer has not yet indicated whether she backs Hall’s plan.

The General Fund would take a major hit should this plan be enacted, with $1.8 billion coming from corporate income tax revenue, plus another $1 billion coming from reallocating the sales tax on gas. The loss in sales tax dollars would be made up by increasing the fuel tax to keep schools, cities, villages and townships whole.

As you know, MAC is advocating for counties to receive a portion of the state’s sales tax revenue through Revenue Sharing Trust Fund legislation. For this reason, we will be closely monitoring the reimbursement mechanism here.

Bills have yet to be introduced to reflect Hall’s plan, but they are expected next week. There are between seven and nine session days remaining in 2024, which does not allow much time to negotiate or accommodate a lengthy committee process.

MAC does not yet have a formal position on Hall’s plan.

For more information on this issue, contact Madeline Fata at fata@micounties.org.

Legislature eyes changes to employer health insurance contribution caps

Bills aimed at revising or repealing Public Act 152 of 2011, the law that limits how much public employers can pay toward employee health insurance premiums, could get action in coming weeks in the Legislature. The proposals have sparked debate over the future of cost-sharing between public employers and employees and the role of collective bargaining in determining those costs.

House Bills 6136-42 would repeal of PA 152, which MAC strongly opposes. Repeal would remove existing cost-containment measures and open employer contributions to collective bargaining. This approach could lead to unsustainable cost increases for county governments and other public employers.

HB 6058, introduced as a more moderate alternative, would increase the hard caps for employer contributions:

$8,258 for single-person coverage
$17,271 for individual-and-spouse coverage
$22,523 for family coverage

These increases represent a jump of 7.25 percent from 2024 levels. The bill maintains an inflationary adjustment tied to the medical care component of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), but adds a floor of a 3 percent annual increase, ensuring the caps rise even during periods of low inflation. On top of the indexed or 3 percent increase, the bill also allows for an additional 5 percent increase that would be a subject of bargaining.

However, HB 6058 also makes significant changes to the 80/20 cost-sharing option. PA 152 now requires employers to pay “no more” than 80 percent of the cost of health premiums. HB 6058 would require employers to pay “no less” than 80 percent, effectively opening this provision to collective bargaining. MAC is concerned this change would reduce predictability for public employers and potentially increase costs.

Lastly, HB 6058 also allows for different bargaining units to have different caps, effectively slating some bargaining units to pay less for health premiums than others.

In the Senate, similar changes are proposed under Senate Bills 1129-30. These bills also increase the hard caps to match those in HB 6058, with similar provisions for negotiating the additional 5 percent, but the Senate bills phase-in the additional measures up to 5 percent by 2029.

As far as how the 80/20 cost share split works in the Senate bills, they retain the “no more than 80 percent” language for cost-sharing while gradually raising the maximum employer contribution to 81.5 percent by 2029. By keeping the language intact, the Senate bills avoid reopening this issue to collective bargaining.

And like the House bill, the Senate bills also allow for different bargaining units to have different caps.

MAC opposes the repeal bills outright and has not yet endorsed any of the amendatory proposals from the House or Senate.

While MAC supports raising the hard caps to better reflect the rising costs of health care, MAC seeks a simpler approach to the readjustment by tying the caps to a more appropriate inflationary index that better tracks health insurance premium increases.

For more information on this issue, contact Deena Bosworth at bosworth@micounties.org.

Podcast 83: MAC readies final push on governor about revenue sharing

County leaders soon will be asked to engage in a letter-writing campaign to urge the passage of bills creating a dedicated Revenue Sharing Trust Fund, legislation for which has been bottled up in the Michigan Senate for months, MAC’s Deena Bosworth said in the latest episode of Podcast 83.

“The Revenue Sharing Trust Fund bills, just for a reminder for our members, are House Bills 4274-75. They passed out of the House last year by an overwhelming majority, 106-4, and they have been sitting in the Senate Finance Committee ever since. We have been trying and trying and trying to get these bills some movement,” Bosworth explained.

“We know that we have the votes in the Senate to support this and put it on the governor’s desk. The hold up is actually getting them up for a vote. … And the stumbling block that we’re hearing is that we need the governor to actually ask the Legislature to do this, to make it an item that she would like to see done in the lame duck session.

“So, our strategy at this point is we are going to put together a letter, and we are going to ask all of our county commissioners, our affiliates, everyone to sign this letter and send it back to us. It will be a letter to the governor asking the governor to make this a priority and ask the Legislature to move these bills forward,” Bosworth added.

In other legislative news:

MAC derailed a House vote last week on “minimum staffing” legislation that would cause no end of problems for county members.

“As a reminder for everyone, that’s to mandate that minimum staffing be a subject of bargaining for Public Act 312 employees that was initially posted on the House floor agenda for a vote (last) Wednesday,” said Samantha Gibson. “We were able to get that taken off the agenda … on Wednesday, and then again on Thursday, so we were able to avoid a House vote on that. Hopefully, we can continue that into December, but that is a difficult issue.”

A new attempt is being made to usurp local control over aggregate mining operations.

“The aggregate legislation was reintroduced with new sponsors,” said Madeline Fata. “And just to remind you all, it essentially preempts all local control, all zoning for sand and gravel mines, and it would put the permitting authority into the hands of (the state). … (W)hen the original bills were brought up for a hearing, it did not go so well. There was a lot of public pushback, a lot of local government pushback, even environmental pushback on it. So, we were kind of hopeful that the issue was dead, but it is rearing its ugly head again.”

To view the full episode, recorded on Nov. 18, click here.

Previous episodes can be seen at MAC’s YouTube Channel.

And you always can find details about Podcast 83 on the MAC website.

MAC announces Thanksgiving week schedule

The Michigan Association of Counties will close its Lansing offices at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 27 to observe the Thanksgiving holiday. MAC offices will resume normal business hours on Monday, Dec. 2 at 8 a.m.

MAC’s Legislative Update will next appear in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 6.

Treasury webinar will focus on fundamentals, best practices

The Michigan Department of Treasury and Michigan State University Extension (MSU Extension) want to make you aware of our next Fiscally Ready Communities training opportunity. This FREE training is a 90-minute webinar designed to assist appointed and elected officials.

Click here to register.

The next webinar will be on Dec. 12, 2024.

“From Fundamentals to Best Practices”

This program focuses on implementing financial best practices, measuring fiscal health, and local government financial management fundamentals. It will include material on reconciling a bank account, how to read and interpret governmental financial statements, audit prep umbrella, how to complete and file an F65 Report, remitting taxes timely, and how to craft an appropriate and effective audit finding Corrective Action Plan. Participants will also receive resources to support best practice implementation and assess their local unit fiscal health.

For more information about Fiscally Ready Communities, please check out Fiscally Ready Communities webpage. This webpage includes Treasury’s 32-page Fiscally Ready Communities Best Practices document, which we encourage all local officials to review.

If you have any questions, email TreasLocalGov@michigan.gov with the subject line “Fiscally Ready.”

Four Michigan county leaders graduate from NACo training

MAC would like to acknowledge and congratulate the November NACo Leadership Academy graduates from Michigan. They join more than 10,000 graduates and current participants from across the country benefitting from the 12-week online program enabling existing and emerging county leaders to achieve their highest potential:

Brianne Lindsay, equalization director, Benzie County
Chris Roberts, network administrator, Grand Traverse County (Cybersecurity)
Jackie Palfey, human resource manager, Benzie County
Liana Wilson, IT director, Leelanau County (Cybersecurity)

The academy’s January Cohort is right around the corner. Invest in your workforce, empowering them to become better leaders today and into the future. Scholarships to honor the program’s 10th anniversary are now available through Dec. 31.

Click here to learn more and enroll.