In the last gasp battle in the Lame Duck Michigan legislature, the majority GOP did not manage to strip significant powers from the incoming Dem executive branch. Thanks to the moderate position taken by GOP Gov. Rick Snyder, key bills which would have allowed the GOP – led legislature to take a role in the Dems executive decision making did not make it into law. In fact, Snyder vetoed 55 bills which the GOP lawmakers had crammed into the lame duck session and sent to the governor for his signature.
Snyder does not come out of this completely untainted however. He signed a bill crimping the ability of citizen led initiatives to see the light of day. Signed in retaliation for the incredible accomplishment of the anti-gerrymander initiative which cuts right into the GOP power, the new law attempts to insure that citizens do not initiate similar measures. (very anti-democratic) Snyder also signed a bill allowing Enbridge to build a tunnel under the lake bed in the Straits of Mackinac . This law still makes an area of Lake Michigan at risk of being polluted by a line 5 break along Highway 2.
So in the end the Dems came out of Michigan’s lame duck war in pretty good shape.. Some of the bills signed into law will be challenged by the Dems in the courts. Gov. Whitmer will likely figure ways to work around some of the more challenging laws. And the best news of course, is that she has the veto power to stop all anti-liberal bills sent to her from the Legislature. in their tracks.
This picture looks quite different from that of neighboring Wisconsin. Gov, Scott Walker. much more partisan than Snyder, gleefully signed all of the GOP bills sent to him. This authoritarian power grab in Wisconsin mocks the concept of aligning governing with the voters’ will. With voter outrage fomenting, the GOP thus will have a major mountain to climb to win voters back in 2020.
This article in The New York Times discusses the implications of the bills which Snyder vetoed.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/ahttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/us/michigan-snyder-power-veto.
The following article from U.S. News and World Report gives a rundown of some of the most significant bills Snyder either signed or vetoed.
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