Lawmakers returned to Lansing this week, kicking off a hotly anticipated lame duck session with a light Tuesday agenda.
With one Democrat absent due to health reasons, the majority party was hobbled in advancing legislation with only Democratic support.
The slim Democratic majority will control the House until January, but until then, any one member can derail the legislative process with an absence or by withholding their vote.
“Starting next week, the intention is to have 56 members here,” said Rep. Ranjeev Puri, majority whip for the Democrats. “We will do whatever we can to accommodate different situations. There’s obviously health situations that come up that we can’t control. We’ve honored that from both Democratic and Republican colleagues in the past, so we’ll continue to do that.”
The House did move forward some legislation with bipartisan support, including proposals to allow school bus stop-arm cameras to record and assess fines for those passing stopped buses.
The measures also increase the minimum fine for passing a stopped bus and direct those fines to the school district that operates the school bus.
Much of the legislative work Tuesday took place outside of the House chamber. In the morning, the House Economic Development Committee considered legislation banning price gouging in declared states of emergency.
“This package would help crack down on bad actors and give Michiganders one less thing to worry about when the unfortunate worst case happens,” said Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia.
The proposals would prohibit price increases of more than 10% for most consumer goods, including food, medicine, building materials and services.
Some of those scenarios are covered under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, but supporters say the legislation would make it easier to investigate individual bad actors.
The committee also heard testimony on zoning reform, which would allow the development of duplexes in metro areas currently zoned for single-family housing. Traverse City would be included in the proposal.
“We know that duplexes won’t ruin communities or neighborhoods,” said Kent Wood, policy advisor for Housing North. “We know that parking for less than two vehicles won’t ruin communities or neighborhoods. It won’t bring down property values. It won’t do a whole host of consequences that are routinely brought up.”
Opponents say the proposals would remove local control over housing development and that potential savings may not be passed onto the consumer.
Lawmakers have seven scheduled session days through Dec. 18, though the majority could add more days if necessary.
