The leading voice for business in Michigan
Powerful advocacy means having the most successful team in place to tackle tough issues impacting business small and large across the state.
The Michigan Chamber is the unified voice of approximately 5,000 member employers, trade associations and local chambers of commerce of every size and type in all 83 counties of the state.
Our five, full-time registered lobbyists advocate for pro-business policies and against anti-business ones, to promote a forward-moving economy. They are in the trenches every day, fighting on behalf of your interests in Lansing, while you focus on your business. The Michigan Chamber supports free enterprise policies that promote entrepreneurship and business success in our State.
Whatever the issue, the Michigan Chamber is working for you to get the job done.
Key Bills
With the direction from the Board of Directors and input from Chamber members serving on policy committees, a legislative agenda is set to strengthen Michigan’s business climate.
Filter by Job Killing Bills
HB 5525 (Albert): Hold Employers Harmless for State’s Errors Related to Unemployment Program. This appropriation bill would make a $250 million deposit into Michigan’s 100 percent employer-financed Unemployment Trust Fund, to hold it harmful for the fraudulent benefits and improper payments the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) made out over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn More….
The Going Pro Training Fund is aimed at helping employers address their unique talent needs. It does so by allowing employers to apply for awards to assist them in the training, developing and retaining current and newly hired employees. Training funded by the Talent Fund must be short-term and fill a demonstrated talent need experienced by the employer. Training must lead to a credential for a skill that is transferable and recognized by the industry.
SBs 360, 361, 363, 364, 422, 432 and HBs 4646, 4648, 4649, 4650, 4827 would create and expand tools for local governments to support the development or rehabilitation of housing supply that is attainable to more of our citizens and workers. This legislative package is focused on creating and expanding tools for local governments to support the development or rehabilitation of housing supply that is attainable to more of our citizens and workforce.
HB 5244 would eliminate the mandatory isolation/quarantine provisions under Michigan’s anti-retaliation law.
In addition to the Biden Administration’s proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the Legislature has introduced a number of bills aimed at preventing private sector employers from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine (HBs 4471, 4791, 4792) and/or holding employers liable for adverse reactions to the vaccine if they mandate it (HB 5352).
SB 396, SB 397, SB 398 and SB 399 will allow an unconstitutional expansion of casino gaming that disregards the established precedent set around a highly regulated and highly taxed industry. When Government regulates an industry to such a degree, specific and often difficult hurdles stand in the way of changing how these industries operate. Unless total deregulation of highly regulated industries occurs, all businesses must play by the established rules.
SB 429, SB 430 and SB 431 promote aggregate mining and reinforce private property rights in Michigan.
In response to activist local governments continuing to deny mining permits for baseless reasons, the Michigan Chamber and other business groups have worked with labor unions on this package that removes aggregate mining permit authority from local governments and place it in the hands of the state’s environmental protection agency, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).
SB 248 will allow for a streamlined, predictable method for reporting changes in federal tax liability to state tax authorities where one does not currently exist. This promotes tax compliance and efficiency.
The legislation is a part of a national effort to codify the Multistate Tax Commission’s (MTC) model statute (Model Uniform Statute and Regulation for Reporting Adjustments to Federal Taxable Income and Federal Partnership Audit Adjustments) in response to the federal centralized partnership audit regime enacted by Congress in 2015.
HB 4338, SB 172 – Allow Independent Contractors to Collect Unemployment. This legislation would allow independent contractors to be eligible to collect state unemployment benefits during a state-declared emergency and replaces the IRS 20 Factor Test to an ABC test for determining if a worker is an independent contractor.
HB 4337, SB 171 – Increase the Number of Individuals Eligible for Unemployment Benefits. Drops the high quarter earnings eligibility requirement from $4,744 to $1,235. Today, to be eligible for benefits you must, among other things, either have wages in at least two quarters in the base period totaling the amount set in statute. This bill would have the net effect of allowing more claimants, particularly those with little or an unstable attachment to the job market, to collect UI benefits.
HB 4334, SB 170 – Increase Unemployment Benefit Payout. This legislation would increase unemployment insurance (UI) benefit duration from a maximum of 20 weeks to 26 weeks, increases the dependent allowance from $6 per child to $20 per child and increases the number of acceptable dependents from fix to six under the unemployment insurance (UI) program. The dependent allowance gives claimants an extra amount in their UI benefit checks based on the number of dependents they claim.
SB 195: This legislation is in reaction to the Michigan Department of Treasury notice that limits a taxpayer’s ability to fully take advantage of the Internal Revenue Codes (IRC) section on interest expense deductibility. To allow taxpayers to take full advantage of this federal tax provision for state purposes, the Michigan Chamber is looking to codify a more favorable interpretation of the law.
HB 4324: This legislation would allow a business making a capital investment to expense the purchase in the year of acquisition. By expensing 100% of an asset in one-year, taxable income will be reduced more favorably as opposed to having to expense the asset over a number of years. The legislation also reduced compliance burdens for taxpayers because it aligns Michigan with federal depreciation methodologies.
HB 4224 and HB 4225: This legislation exempts from sales and use tax the sale of personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies to a person engaged in a business enterprise that has implemented a COVID-19 safety protocol plan. The exemptions would be retroactive and apply beginning March 10, 2020, through December 31, 2021.
HB 5376 (formerly HB 4288): This legislation is expected to save businesses organized as s-corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and limited liability companies almost $200 million in taxes per year.
Business types listed above, commonly referred to as “passthrough” businesses, will be able to fully deduct their state and local taxes (SALT) from their federal income under changes made in HB 5376 thereby, significantly reducing their federal tax liability. Because the legislation shifts the tax away from an individual and to the business entity, taxpayers can get out from underneath the federal $10,000 cap on SALT deductions.
SB 161 (Sen. McCann): Retroactive Workers’ Compensation Coverage Mandate for COVID Claims. This legislation seeks to require workers’ compensation to cover all COVID-19 related medical claims for “essential workers” retroactive to March 10, 2020. This mandate would apply regardless of whether the worker could prove he or she contracted COVID-19 in the workplace.
SJR C (Irwin): This joint resolution would eliminate Michigan’s longstanding, fair, flat income tax and replace it with one with a graduated one. A flat rate income tax is when with one tax rate applying to all incomes. A graduated income tax rate, also called a progressive tax, is a tax structure that levies increasingly higher tax rates on higher-earning individuals or businesses. Essentially, under this kind of system: the more you make, the more you pay.
SB 20 (Zorn): The legislation would expand the allowable use of “Sinking Funds” to be used for the purchase of school busses. Sinking Funds are a special pots of resources a school district can request from taxpayers to use for very limited, capital improvements to real property. Sinking funds are funded by local property tax millages.
HB 4047 (Beson): Help For Struggling Businesses. This $3.5 billion appropriation bill includes several provisions aimed at providing much-needed and direct relief to Michigan businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency. The bill also includes appropriations for vaccines and to return kids to in-person learning.
SB 2 (Sen. Wojno): Increase Unemployment Benefit Duration. This legislation would increase the number of weeks an unemployed worker is eligible for state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits from 20 to 26.
HB 4027 (Rep. Eisen): Liability for Businesses Choosing to Make Their Property Weapons Free. This legislation is aimed at requiring employers and other private property owners to lift their gun-free and weapons-free policies. The bill specifies that property owners that entirely or partially designate their property as a gun-free or weapon-free zone would be responsible for the safety of an individual who enters the gun-free or weapon-free zone and make property owners liable for damages that result from injuries.
Let your voice be heard
It is our goal to be your voice in the Michigan Legislature. Please let us know how we can advocate for issues that are important to your business.