On December 22, 2011, Governor Snyder signed House Bill 4770.  The bill prevents a public employer from offering medical or other fringe benefits to certain unrelated individuals who reside with public employees.  Higher education institutions are exempted from the provisions due to their constitutional autonomy.  The new ban would affect mostly local governments and public schools in Michigan, and apply to health insurance and other fringe benefits for unmarried partners of public employees, whether they're of the opposite or the same sex.  The law is effective immediately, but does not affect union-represented workers until their current collective bargaining agreements expire, or are amended or renewed.

House Bill 4771, on the other hand, got vetoed.  HB 4771 was proposing to add the "fringe benefits to certain unrelated individuals" to the list of prohibited subjects of collective bargaining under Public Employment Relations Act (PERA), instead of banning the benefits altogether.  In vetoing the Bill Governor Snyder reasoned that the bill directly conflicted with Public Act 260 of 2011, signed on December 14, 2011 which amended the PERA giving public employers discretion in deciding whether or not to renegotiate an existing, applicable bargaining agreement upon consolidation of public employers or public services through a merger or interlocal agreement among other changes.

The recent data from the Civil Service Commission puts the number of current employees benefiting from what is widely known as "domestic partners benefits" to 138 and the cost for 2011-2012 to $893,000.  The legislation claims to have passed this law for its potential savings of $8 million.  ACLU of Michigan has vowed to take the law to the courts for violation of equal protection rights.

On December 6, 2011, Senate Bill 8, a bill that would create the "Municipal Partnership Act" was submitted to Governor Snyder for signature. This act is tie-barred to Senate Bill 9 and 10 and would allow two or more local governments or one or more local governments and a public agency to enter into a contract with each other to form a joint endeavor to perform or exercise any function, service, power, or privilege that the local government or public agency could exercise separately.

The new joint endeavor could use tax revenue that was previously dedicated to pay for the exercise or performance of any function, service, power, or privilege by that local government or public agency individually, to fund the exercise or performance of that function, service, power, or privilege by the joint endeavor. Moreover, the joint endeavor could levy a tax up to five mills on all taxable property in the areas it served for the purposes of providing revenue to the joint endeavor, but only if approved by a majority of electors served by the endeavor.

The Municipal Partnership Act also makes various topics prohibited subjects of bargaining between a local government or public agency and the bargaining representative of its employees. Specifically, the following would be prohibited subjects of bargaining under the Act:

• Whether the local government would enter into a contract for a joint endeavor under the proposed Act for or in connection with one or more functions or services;
• The procedures for obtaining the contract for a joint endeavor;
• The identities of the other parties to the contract;
• The contents or language of the contract; and
• The impact of the contract on individual employees or the bargaining unit.

To learn more about the Municipal Partnership Act please contact Andria Ditschman at (517) 886-7139 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or Michael Woodworth at (517) 886-7119 ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Pursuant to Michigan's Environmental Indicators Act of 1999, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) worked with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to produce a new report on the quality of Michigan's environment. Entitled "State of Michigan's Environment 2011," the report is divided into three sections: Environmental Measures, Programmatic Measures, and Emerging Contaminants of Concern in Michigan. The Environmental Measures section presents the ecological, physical, and chemical measures used by the State to track environmental quality. The Programmatic Measures section covers those measures used by the State to fulfill state and federal environmental program requirements. The final Emerging Contaminants section examines recognized contaminants with potential for environmental and public health impacts.

Click here for the full report.