As we all know we are in the lame duck season of 2018. I want to see what people have going on with their state houses. Is anything being passed under the cover of night? Here in Michigan, we have the bi-annual screeching-fest from Democrats as Republicans in our state like to pass their most controversial plans in the lame duck of an election year. So far they have introduced/passed through one chamber:
Removing local municipalities from preserving forested land rules (urban forests)
Gutting two citizen initiatives they passed in September keep off the ballot (not sure if legal, never been done before)
Removing the bottle deposit law from 1978
Attempting to ram through a 99 year agreement with Enbridge in less than one month (There’s been such as outcry on this one, they have shelved it for a couple of days)
Have introduced a bill that would give the GOP Legislature a voice in court cases as Democrats take power everywhere else in the state
So, what is going on in your neck of the woods? Do you have a Lame Duck session in your state? Are there any controversial laws being proposed?
Pennsylvania Legislature has wrapped up for the year, no lame duck.
The Florida Legislature, like many part time State Legislatures around the country, has set sessions that do not allow for lame duck sessions, unless in the highly unlikely situation of a special session being called by the Governor, which almost never happens in a lame duck situation.
Scott Walker lost to the Democrat. So of course the Republican legislature is pondering taking away some of the Governor’s powers, in case they “ACCIDENTALLY” ceded too much power to the executive branch in the last few years.
They’re doing the same in Michigan. Someone should tell them that we are not North Carolina. This is not going down well with the urban and suburban voters, but they just don’t seem to care.
They must feel their rein coming to an end. All they have left here is their extreme gerrymandering, and that is only going to last four more years before the new maps come out through the new independent commission.
The GOP Governor of my state got reelected this year. (I voted for him.) The Republicans will still control the State Senate and State House next year, but by bit of a smaller margin. And we will have a Democratic Secretary of State this next year.
In GA, the big news is the runoff for Secretary of State. The democratic candidate for governor raised a big fuss around irregularities involving the election. Since the incoming governor was Secretary of State, they are in a huge cat fight over that spot now.
I voted early in the runoff, and had to wait in line 10 minutes at a site where I normally walk right in, fill out my form and vote. That just doesn’t happen often in runoffs in this area.
Not a lame duck legislature as both houses and gov were solid R before and remained solid R after.
But they have been playing kick the can on (as in we PROMISE we will pass something next legislative session but never do) on medical marijuana. So a group go a citizen proposition on the ballot (prop 2). Polls showed it was going to pass and pass big. So the Legislature came up with a “compromise” bill and said they would meed in November/December in special session to pass it regardless of Prop 2’s passage or failure.
Prop 2 passed, so they tweeked the “compromise” bill again, and have called a special session in December to pass it and essential gut what many wanted in prop 2. Have to see how it works, but I can see another citizen initiative if they gut it too much in the near future. I’ll be really surprised if in the regular session in Jan/Feb they don’t try and gut Prop 4 that barely squeaked by. Non partisan commission to re-draw districts after the next census keeping counties from being spit, cities being split and neighboorhoods from being split.
My stupid state senator called it a desguised way of givening Dem’s more votes. No Crazy R senator, it’s letting the populations voice be herd.
Yeah, I don’t think this is constitutional. The Michigan constitution is pretty specific how to handle the citizen’s legislative initiative process. They can pass the initiative, ignore it and let the people decide, or they can deny it and propose alternative legislation for the people to vote on.
What the Republicans in Michigan have done is create an alternative proposal that the people are not going to be able to vote on, and therefore, the legislation they are passing will probably be struck down as unconstitutional.
Interesting updates from the legislature here. We had a all night session where the house passed several bills, but other failed. Here’s the run-down from the first post with undated legislation:
• (SB 1188 & 1194) Removing local municipalities from preserving forested land rules (urban forests) - Passed Senate
• (SB 1171 & 1175) Gutting two citizen initiatives they passed in September keep off the ballot (not sure if legal, never been done before) – Passed Senate and House
• Removing the bottle deposit law from 1978 – Ignored
• (SB 1197) Attempting to ram through a 99 year agreement with Enbridge in less than one month (There’s been such as outcry on this one, they have shelved it for a couple of days) – Signed into Law
• (HB 6553) Have introduced a bill that would give the GOP Legislature a voice in court cases – Passed House
• (SB 1211) Eliminating wetland protections – Passed Senate
• Creating a second state board of education appointed by parties – Failed
• (SB 1238 & 1240) Limiting voter access to 14 days before election and require proof of citizenship be automatic voter registration – Passed Senate
• (SB 1254) Changing proposal 2 to make applicants identify party affiliations – Passed Senate
• (HB 6595) Reforming the ballot proposal process to make it more difficult for citizens to launch successful petition drives – Passed House
• (SB 1176) Restrict the state from requiring disclosure of donors of nonprofit groups that have political ads. – Passed Senate
• (SB 1252) Creating a bipartisan commission to oversee campaign finance instead of Secretary of State – Passed Senate
How far many of these will go, and whether Gov. Snyder will sign them, remains to be seen. But this certainly seems like a smash and grab by western Michigan who look like they see their power in the state diminishing for the foreseeable future and what to take everything they can from the people. Even the Moderate Republicans on the east side seem to be aghast with the western Michigan Republican’s gall.
