Governor Snyder signed two bills last week
creating the Organized Retail Crime Act, and thereby establishing the
possibility of felony charges and up to five years imprisonment for one found
guilty of the theft of retail merchandise with the intent or purpose of
reselling, distributing, or transferring the stolen retail merchandise to
another retail merchant or to any other person, through the mail, or through
any electronic medium, including the internet, or personally in
exchange for anything of value. House
Bills 5843 and 5902
were sponsored by Representative Joe Graves (R-Grand Blanc).
House
Appropriations Staff Named
State Representative Joseph Haveman
(R-Holland), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee for the 2013-2014
legislative term, has announced new staff members heading into the new session.
Patty Hertrich will be Chief of Staff and Mark Kasvin will be a legislative
assistant and scheduler – both were on the staff of previous Appropriations
Committee Chair former Representative Chuck Moss. Connie Burgess will continue
as the lead on constituent relations and as office manager.
Young
Remains Chief Justice
Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert
Young, Jr. will continue in his role following his unanimous re-election by the
Court this week. The Court continues to have a majority (four) of Justices
nominated by the Republican Party and three nominated by the Democratic Party.
The Courts coming session promises to be potentially interesting with the
ongoing saga of Justice Diane Hathaway’s alleged real estate scandal.
Senate
Fiscal Predicts Tight Budget
With the Revenue Estimating Conference still
a week away (scheduled for January 11th), the Senate Fiscal Agency
released estimates this week predicting a tight budget time. Governor Rick
Snyder and the Legislature will begin work in writing the 2013-2014 budget with
revenue estimates predicting a General Fund balance of $146 million and a
School Aid Fund balance of $0 when the fiscal year ends September 30, 2013.
Everything remaining equal, the predictions for the 2013-2014 year-end balances
are $40.9 million for the General Fund and a deficit of $235.4 million in the
School Aid Fund.