Michigan News And Capitol Report, Week Ending Friday, January 9th, 2026

November Unemployment Declines: October Survey Not Published 

Michigan's unemployment rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point to 5 percent between September and November, according to numbers released Tuesday that reflect the reality that October numbers won't be published due to last year's federal shutdown. 

Employment went down by 6,000 jobs and the number of people on unemployment fell by 7,000 over the two-month shutdown, according to the Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s Center for Data and Analytics. 

“Although the state lacked several key labor metrics for October, data for the period from September to November revealed continued trends of declining unemployment rate and total labor force,” said Wayne Rourke, the Center's labor market information director, adding that payroll job growth has shown little change since April 2025.  

The October unemployment and labor force estimates aren't being published because the data from the household survey were not collected. The collection periods for October and November for the payroll jobs data were made available, however. 

The overall non-farm payroll jobs rose by 3,000 between October and November. 

Trade, Transportation and Utilities, private education and health services each went up by 2,000 jobs. Government and retail went up by 1,000 jobs. 

Construction and manufacturing each went down by 1,000 jobs. 

The national unemployment rate went down to 4.6% between September and November. That rate has gone up by four-tenths percent from the same time in 2024. Michigan’s rate fell by two-tenths percent over the year. 

The labor force participation rate between September and November saw the number of those looking for jobs go down to 61.1% in November, which was a decrease of 0.2%. 

There's Still More Tax Increase Idea Left In Steckloff's Road Funding Binder 

When Rep. Samantha Steckloff (D-Farmington Hills) drove up to road-funding negotiations last year, she carried in with her a binder of 13 different revenue-raising proposals. On last week's MIRS Monday Podcast episode, she remained secretive about what's in there, believing future lawmakers may need them. 

Several of the ideas in that binder "were off the table" from the beginning. Toll roads. When the public caught wind of a possible tax on package deliveries, every organization dealing with deliveries was out with its opposition.  

However, the binder got the conversation started and a new wholesale marijuana tax was what was settled on. 

Her binder originates from a work group – made up of three Democrats and three Republicans – during Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth's leadership in the 2021-22 term. 

During this term, her experience on that panel helped win her a position as a road-funding negotiator on a team that settled on taking the sales tax off gasoline in exchange for a new $0.524 per-gallon gas tax on motor and alternative fuel. 

"For the past years, we kind of knew what needed to be done, but it was always going to include a revenue increase, and so how do you get that revenue increase? That's where the sticky points were. No one wants to put something on the board that's going to increase taxes," Steckloff said, "And I think that was one of the driving forces why this took so long to get done."  

Once a bill was drafted, she explained that the lobbying groups came with guns blazing. 

She described that if Michigan had a delivery fee ranging from 25 cents to $1, it could have secured anything from $300 million to a $1 billion increase in state tax revenue, "a huge chunk of change that was pretty much taken off the table."  

"I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus or anything, but anytime you drop one of those, it definitely hurts the final negotiations," Steckloff said, "Heavy trucks (are) another great example. That bill was dropped, it notified some of our stakeholders, and they came in hard."  

In July of last year, Rep. Phil Skaggs (D-Grand Rapids) introduced legislation establishing a weight-distance fee for heavy trucks traveling through the state, which is projected to generate more than $100 million annually for road maintenance and infrastructure updates. 

Steckloff added on the podcast that there was a proposal to place a tax on parking spaces, which could have offered about $200 million to $300 million. For example, in October, Rhode Island started subjecting off-street parking facilities to its 7% sales tax. Additionally, the city of New Orleans in Louisiana has a 3% "Orleans Parish Parking Tax."  

As the bill sponsor of the tax increase that did make it into the final road funding product – the 24% wholesale tax on marijuana – Steckloff said, "I will tell you I have not visited a dispensary since then."  

"I have been expecting to see my portrait on the wall, (reading) 'not allowed.' So I have not been in one yet," Steckloff said. "The cannabis industry was actually one of the industries that came to the table this year, so we were really trying to work with them. I had a different tax increase (from) the wholesale tax, so (I) was really working with them on that specific increase, but that's why you see so much of a focus on the regulatory side, because that was always part of the negotiation."  

Right now, the cannabis industry is interested in legislation to slow down the dispensing of recreational cannabis licenses, aimed at drawing back the saturation the market has experienced. There's additionally an interest in regulating intoxicating hemp products that are being sold outside of Michigan's marijuana statutes. 

Weed stakeholders attempted to have the 24% wholesale tax blocked by a preliminary injunction, arguing it was unconstitutional because voters did not agree to such a charge when they supported legalization of recreational marijuana in the 2018 elections. 

On Monday, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Simal Patel denied the state's request to block a lawsuit filed by the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association (MCIA), deciding to hold a scheduling conference Jan. 13 to move the suit closer to trial. 

Steckloff said it's sad the industry that came to the table "was kind of the one that got on the chopping block," and the courts' future decisions around the tax is "obviously something that's been in the back of my head ever since we got this done in October."  

She said it's one of the reasons she's being a little bit quiet about some of the other tax increases talked about last year.  

"We will see as this continues to move forward. I am prepared with the other tax increases if we need to move towards that route," she said. "We'll need to pull it out . . . the problem is, even with where we are with this road funding – we're at about a $1.8 to $2 billion increase – it's still not where we need to be . . . I still think there's more work that needs to be done, so if that has to be opened up, we do have other options on the table."  

She projects seeing more states bring vehicle-miles-traveled fees online, with local governments in Michigan moving from special assessment districts to local road millages.  

"You're constantly going to see more and more communities come online with a tax increase, so at some point, it's just not sustainable. We have to come up with something," Steckloff said. 

Speaker Pushes Economic Development To Back Burner 

If Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is serious about tackling literacy in the new year, so is House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township). 

Entering his second year as the House's leader, Hall is moving economic development to the back burner after the topic “lost momentum” in late 2025. He said the Senate “dropped the ball” on the issue so now he'll have his members work on it “in the background" with the goal of hammering out an agreement by year's end. 

This will not be music to the ears of the business community, who had hoped to see an expanded brownfield development program or an income tax capture scheme make it to the Governor by the end of 2025. The programs differ from the “corporate welfare and picking winners and losers” that House conservatives and progressives are opposing. 

But after the House Republicans' work project denials agitated Senate Democrats, the numerous differences in how each side would approach either a brownfield or tax capture plan became too high a hill to climb. 

Now, Hall said in a Zoom interview with MIRS that he's looking forward to working with Whitmer on literacy, health care affordability and property tax relief. 

“We will work with the Governor on solving these problems,” Hall said. 

Pundits Divided On Speaker's Property Tax Savings Idea 

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) has vowed to push some form of property tax relief in the new year, but two political observers in this town have a different take on his chances for success. 

Former state legislator and longtime pundit Bill Ballenger – who watched an earlier property tax cut effort unfold back in 1994 – said, "It's conceivable. This could happen, but it's not like Proposal A in 1994. That was unique. The property tax was abolished and there had to be a replacement." 

Asked if Hall had a shot at this, consultant John Sellek said, "I think he does. Matt Hall does not wade into issues unless he has thought them through." 

The polling data suggests that the affordability issue has raised concerns in many families as they struggle to make ends meet. Some would argue that making the monthly house payment is at the top or near the top of those concerns. 

Sellek said he thinks Hall and House Republicans are "seeing a lot of angst as they see the property tax creeping up again." 

Ballenger suggested Hall will have a tough time managing the two-thirds supermajority needed to put something on the ballot if it includes asking the voters to approve a replacement revenue source as opposed to a tax cut. The dollar-for-dollar replacement is needed, however, to make local governments whole from losing their property tax revenue. 

"I think there will be a lot of resistance from the Democrats," Ballenger said. 

Conceding that that could be the case, Sellek countered that, either way, Hall wins. 

"Even if he can't get it all the way, he's going to do some damage to his competitive Democrats who try to stop him . . . he's going to get a political advantage whether he wins or loses . . . If they vote no, he will gladly use those votes against all those Democrats when they are trying to run for re-election in the House or Senate," he said. 

As for predicting the outcome of a debate that has not begun in earnest, Ballenger sums it up, "I don't think this is going to happen . . . A month from now, we will have forgotten this is even an issue." 

Of course, the Speaker will have something to say about that.