Dogs and booze: 18 laws from Greater Lansing lawmakers

LANSING – Seeing-eye dogs and other service animals can be tagged as a civil right, powdered alcohol is banned from Michigan stores, and more property and tax documents can be maintained electronically thanks to lawmakers representing Greater Lansing.

As of Monday, the start of the Legislature’s two-week deer-season-and-Thanksgiving break, the 11 Lansing-area legislators had introduced a combined 168 bills this term. Eighteen of those bills have been signed into law.

Laws recently autographed by Gov. Rick Snyder included:

A bill from state Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Potterville, allowing disabled Michiganders to get special tags for their service animals through the state Civil Rights Department. Snyder on Monday signed a Barrett bill allowing relevant military experience to apply toward licensing requirements for boiler installation, repair or inspection.

A bill from state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, prohibiting the sale, use or possession of powdered alcohol.

A bill from state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., D-Meridian Township, allowing property records to be signed electronically.

And a bill from state Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, allowing local government treasurers to maintain digital instead of hard copy tax rolls.

Jones — who has introduced 53 bills thus far this term, more than any other Greater Lansing legislator — has two other bills awaiting Snyder’s signature: One would clarify how corrections, probation and parole officers prove eligibility to carry weapons in weapons-free zones. The other would allow longer truck-trailer combinations for trucks that haul other trucks.

Laws from Greater Lansing lawmakers signed earlier by Snyder protected military parents’ custody rights, gave local governments more control over troubled mobile home parks, and removed the term “crippled children” from Michigan statutes.

Among Greater Lansing lawmakers’ 148 still-pending bills is legislation that would prohibit the government from requiring doctors to provide patients with “information that is not medically accurate” (Hertel), prohibit the state from providing employee benefits to people who are not state workers’ spouses or dependents (Jones), and give a larger share of state roads money to local governments (state Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing).

Only three local lawmakers — state Reps. Tom Cochran, D-Mason, Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt Township, and Ben Glardon, R-Owosso — have had zero bills signed into law thus far this term. Those three also have introduced the fewest bills of any area legislators, with five each.

The local lawmaker with the highest rate of success this term is state Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, who’s introduced 10 bills and had three signed into law, for a 30% rate. He’s followed by Barrett, who’s had 27% of his 15 bills made into public acts, and Schor, who’s had about 14% of his 14 bills signed into law.

Across the Legislature, about 10% of 1,704 bills introduced this term — 1,080 in the House, 624 in the Senate — have been made into public acts. Seven bills are waiting for the governor’s pen.

Contact Justin A. Hinkley at (517) 377-1195 or jhinkley@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.

Greater Lansing lawmakers' bills