Dear Friends,

To better serve the people of the 30th Senate District, I am offering this “Week in Review.” I hope you will find it informative about what is happening in Lansing.

I encourage you to contact me with any state issue. You may call 517-373-6920 or email [email protected].  Also, please check out my Facebook page. Let me know if I can assist you in any way or if you have an idea to help move our state forward.

Working for you,
Roger Victory
State Senator

The Senate Appropriations Committee last week took up four budget implementation bills. These items were negotiated as part of the fiscal year 2022 budget that was signed last month and are needed to fully implement the budget.

Senate Bill 686 and House Bill 5003 would extend various current Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) fees until Oct. 1, 2025. Among the fees extended by the bills are the floodplain permit application fees and fees for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater operator training and certification.

Importantly, there are NO fee increases in the bills. They would only extend the fees for another four years.

The committee also took up Senate Bills 627 and 628, which would create the Michigan-Indiana State Line Commission with each state getting five members. Michigan’s members would be the county surveyors from Berrien, Branch, Cass, Hillsdale and St. Joseph counties.

The last survey of the Michigan-Indiana border was completed in the 1800s when wooden posts were used to mark the land. Many of the posts have been lost over time.

Several issues have come to light over the years because of the blurry lines. These include a wide range of jurisdiction issues from economic development to public safety – such as questions over which state’s laws are applicable during accidents or traffic violations near the border.

The bills require similar legislation to be enacted in Indiana and that costs and responsibilities be shared in an equitable manner between the two states. Funding was included in the state budget to cover Michigan’s portion of the survey.

Click here to watch the committee hearing.

The Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee last week heard from several judges and justices about House Bills 4222 and 4223 to reorganize the Court of Claims, which hears and determines all civil actions filed against the state of Michigan and its agencies.

The bills would move the Court of Claims (COC) from the Court of Appeals to the circuit court, require the COC to provide an opportunity for electronic filing, and establish how submitted COC filings are handed.

Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack and former Justice Kurtis Wilder were among those who spoke in support of the bills. The Department of Attorney General opposed the bills but did not have anyone speak during the hearing.

Some of the issues that were raised and might need to be addressed in the reforms are the lack of a central clerk for COC cases, a population threshold that would limit the number of judges from large counties serving on the COC, and who selects the circuit judges to hear COC cases.

The committee also took up Senate Bill 683, which would specify that a provision requiring criminal cases to be transferred to family court if the individual was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense would apply only to an offense committed on or after Oct. 1, 2021.

For an offense occurring before Oct. 1, the reform would require a criminal case to be transferred to the family court if the individual were under age 17.

The bill is designed to add a section that was inadvertently left out of the 2019 legislation to raise the maximum age for a person to be adjudicated as a juvenile in the state of Michigan.

Click here to watch the committee hearing.

Last week, the Senate Economic and Small Business Development Committee approved my legislation to help clean up additional sites in our state.

Senate Bill 562 would allow certain landfills to once again be considered brownfield sites and be eligible for assistance in cleaning up contamination and developing the sites. This was allowed until changes to the law were made in 2016. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

I sponsored this bill to help spur economic development, put these sites back to productive use, and protect our environment. Locally, this reform would help clean up an old landfill in Ottawa County that has been vacant for decades.

Below is a list of resources available to you if you need any type of assistance. Additionally, you can contact my office at any time for more information.