Editor's Note: This week's Roll Call Report reviews recent votes by the Michigan Legislature and your local lawmakers.

Senate Bill 432: Expand subsidies for certain research and development operations. Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on February 18, 2020

To exempt from property taxes certain nonprofit operations that do product research and development for business and industry and also get certain state "economic development" subsidies and grants.

Yes: Sen. Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton; Sen. Roger Victory, R-Hudsonville.

House Bill 5347: Impose more "beer festival" rules. Passed 103 to 1 in the House on February 20, 2020

To revise details of rules for beer festivals, among other things stipulating that they can last more than one day without requiring a separate special license, permitting "micro brewers" to serve their own products at an event, repealing a requirement for regulators to determine whether an event is "appropriate," and more.

This is one of a 16-bill package revising many provisions of Michigan’s extraordinarily detailed and extensive “liquor control” regulatory regime, which essentially writes into state law detailed rules governing the members of this cartel that would ordinarily be promulgated by an administrative agency.

Yes: Rep. Jim Lilly, R-Park Township; Rep. Bradley Slagh, R-Zeeland; Rep. Mary Whiteford, R-Casco Township

House Bill 5015: Require state agencies post salaries and benefits (but not names). Passed 104 to 3 in the House on February 18, 2020

To revise the information that must be included in a 2016 law that required each state department to post its organizational staffing chart on a state website.

As introduced, the bill required the name of each agency staffer to be listed with the title of their position, and the individuals salary and benefits. The version that passed the House deleted the requirement that the names to be posted.

Yes: Lilly, Slagh, Whiteford.

Senate Resolution A: Senate Resolution A, Oppose Heartwell's NRC nomination by defeating Mitterling's. Passed 20 to 16 in the Senate on February 13, 2020

To disapprove the appointment by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Anna Mitterling to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission. Reportedly the real target of this action by the Senate Republican majority is Whitmer’s nomination of current NRC member and former Grand Rapids mayor George Heartwell as chair of the commission, which has "exclusive authority to regulate the taking of game and sportfish," and designating which species may or may not be hunted.

Heartwell’s nomination is opposed by the National Rifle Association because of his role as a “state membership coordinator of antigun groups" organized by former New York City mayor and current Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

Yes: Nesbitt, Victory.

House Bill 5117: Facilitate wrongful imprisonment compensation. Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate on February 11, 2020

To exempt from state Court of Claims procedural restrictions and deadlines the claims that are made by former prisoners under a 2016 law that authorizes state payments to a person wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he or she did not commit.

Reportedly these obstacles have prevented a number of former prisoners from getting the compensation the law entitles them to receive.

Yes: Nesbitt, Victory.

— MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate.