It’s a disappointing close to the legislative session in Lansing for state Representative Joey Andrews.
Andrews tells us the Michigan House Friday ended out the week without approving legislation to regulate short-term rentals. His plan would have allowed communities to limit the rentals while establishing a way for them to generate revenue. Andrews tells us the package had enough bipartisan support to pass, but House Speaker Joe Tate blocked it from ever getting a vote.
“I was lied to on multiple occasions about what it would take to get that bill on the board,” Andrews said. “I met every requirement put in front of me on it and then was still denied at the end because the Speaker cares more about what the Realtors Association has to say than he does his own caucus.”
Andrews believes Tate’s scuttling of the legislation was related to Tate’s potential campaign for mayor of Detroit.
STRs aren’t the only thing the Speaker gave up on. Andrews says the minimum wage negotiations fell apart.
“The Speaker blew up the negotiations. There was a deal possible on this. Labor, business groups, everybody was very willing to negotiate, and the Speaker, for reasons that elude me and most of the rest of our colleagues, blew the negotiations up, which resulted in the Republicans walking off the floor. And he made no attempt to reopen those negotiations to bring them back.”
Restaurant groups sought a rollback of a coming minimum wage hike that would have resulted in tipped workers getting the standard minimum wage. Andrews says that’s now bumped to next year, along with legislation from him to encourage the development of small modular nuclear reactors. He believes the nuclear legislation still has a good shot at passage in the new year.
The final days of the legislative session will be this Wednesday and Thursday. However, Andrews says nothing major is likely to be done in the House in those two days.
