Following the recent repeal of right-to-work, the Michigan Legislature is reviewing a package of bills that grant unions robust political privileges.

Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, introduced one such bill, House Bill 4234. The bill would amend the Michigan Campaign Finance Act to allow labor unions to collect political funds from consenting workers through a payroll deduction plan.

Payroll deduction plans deduct a certain amount from an employee’s paycheck to pay for union dues, agency fees, or other services. In this bill, the deduction could fund contributions to the union’s political action committee, or PAC, something that was previously prohibited.

Read it for yourself: House Bill 4234 of 2023

Advocates of House Bill 4234 argue that the bill allows workers to have a stronger voice in political affairs.

Earl Cox, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said during a House Elections Committee meeting in May that the bill enables “Our members who choose to contribute to the union’s political action efforts…[to] be able to do so in the least burdensome way.”

Related reading: Two Michigan House bills shower favors on unions

But the bill would also exempt unions from campaign finance laws that classify all contributions made to a candidate as coming from the same committee.

This means that unions could establish separate committees for local, state and national affiliates, thereby doubling or tripling the amount a union could donate to political candidates. Each committee could then increase its political expenditures, while also making total union political spending much more difficult to track down.

As the House Fiscal Agency analysis of the bill explains:

House Bill 4234 would amend the Michigan Campaign Finance Act to allow the use of public resources to establish or administer payroll deduction plans for contributions to campaign committees, to allow labor organizations to make expenditures without becoming committees, and to allow divisions of labor organizations to be considered individual committees for the purpose of certain campaign finance regulations.

Supporters say the bill will strengthen workers’ political voices. But it would also reduce the transparency of unions’ spending in politics.

As the House fiscal analysis reads: “A labor organization would still be subject to reporting requirements but would be able to make an expenditure in any amount without becoming a committee for reason of making an expenditure.”

The House Committee on Elections passed the bill, and on May 16 it was referred for a second reading in the House.

Therese Boudreaux is a Michigan Capitol Confidential intern. 

A new law makes it expensive to operate a vehicle with a cellphone in hand, even when the vehicle is stopped at a red light.

House bills 4250, 4251 and 4252 amend Section 602b of the Michigan Vehicle Code, adding to the list of ways motorists may not use cellphones while in driving cars. They also introduce corresponding legal penalties. These bills were introduced April 11. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed them June 7.

Drivers will have to connect their phones to Bluetooth-enabled devices if they wish to use them to make calls, listen to music, or use a navigational system while driving.

Penalties apply even if the driver is stopped at a red light or stop sign. They start at $100 for a first-time ticket. Penalties can reach 24 hours of community service, a fine of $250, or both.

If the driver is deemed responsible for an accident, any penalty will be doubled.

Penalties will be doubled if the driver was operating a commercial vehicle or school bus.

A driver who commits three violations within a three-year period will be required to complete a driver’s training course.

Certain people are exempt. They include:

• Police officers
• Law enforcement personnel
• Fire department members
• Ambulance drivers
• Individuals operating or programming automated motor vehicles without a human operator for the purpose of testing

There is also an exception for making an emergency call or reporting a crime.

A Michigan Capitol Confidential review of crash data from michigantrafficcrashfacts.com shows that distracted-driving crashes were down 10% between 2017 and 2021, which is the most recent year recorded. In 2021, fewer than 1% of fatal crashes in Michigan were attributed to distracted driving, and a fraction of a fraction of all crashes in Michigan involved drivers who were using phones.

Related reading: Michigan cell phone ban is a myopic approach to distracted driving

The House Fiscal Agency analysis for House Bills 4250 through 4252 said the bills “would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on the state and on local units of government that would depend on the number of individuals ordered to pay a civil fine.”

The bills were enacted into Public Acts 39, 40, and 41 of 2023.

Read the Michigan Public Acts Table of 2023

“The majority of the revenue would increase funding for public and county law libraries, which are the constitutionally designated recipients of those revenues,” the House analysis continues. “A small portion of the revenue would be deposited into the state Justice System Fund, which supports various justice-related endeavors in the judicial and legislative branches of government and the Departments of State Police, Corrections, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. The fiscal impact on local court systems would depend on how provisions of the bill affected court caseloads and related administrative costs.”

The cellphone ban takes effect June 30.