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by Scott McClallen, The Center Square | May 14, 2021 05:00 PM Print this article
The Michigan House passed bills Thursday aiming to provide tax relief to small businesses, limit state board transfers of money, and enact a supplemental budget.
HB 4288, passed on a vote of 88-18, seeks to offer small businesses a tax deduction already available for larger companies.
Rep. Jack O’Malley, R-Lake Ann, supported the bill seeking to give small businesses a tax dedication.
“We’ve seen people’s livelihoods taken apart by the pandemic and the orders issued in response,” he said on the House floor. “People in my district have worked decades to raise up their small business, and it’s truly their life work.”
Credit Lester Graham / Michigan Radio
The creation of a new, bipartisan task force to address problems in the state s adoption and foster care system was announced Thursday by Michigan Representative Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The overall goal is to improve the outcomes for kids that are in the foster care and adoption systems, Albert said.
Albert said the specific agenda will be set by the task force.
He cited child welfare services, family reunification, increasing adoptions, and educational outcomes of foster kids as possible areas to be investigated.
The task force plans to hear from experts, families, and children who have had firsthand experience with the system and its shortcomings.
Whiteford: Supports Capitol open-carry ban By Peg McNichol
Jan 12, 2021 2:28 PM
HOLLAND (WTHC-AM/FM) Michigan Rep. Mary Whiteford, R-Casco Twp., said she supports the Capitol Commission’s 6-0 vote to ban open-carry weapons in the Capitol building.
The vote, held Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, is in response to the events of Jan. 6 in Washington D.C.: a protest-turned-riot, at which five people died, including a U.S> Capitol police officer. A second Capitol police officer took his own life after the incident.
Some state officials had asked for the open-carry ban after armed protesters invaded the Lansing Capitol last April, but that effort failed. The D.C. riot, a bomb threat to the state Capitol earlier this month, and federal and state law-enforcement warnings of possible future violence led to Monday’s decision.