On Jan. 8, 2025, State Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) take question on their reintroduced effort to subject the Legislature and the governor to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, the first bills introduced in the Senate during the 2025 Legislative Session. | Kyle Davidson
As the Michigan House of Representatives welcomed new Republican leadership to the chamber on Wednesday, the Democratic-led state Senate hit the ground running, introducing 15 bills, with some reviving key debates from the previous legislative session.
While Democrats previously held a trifecta in Lansing, controlling both chambers of the Legislature and the governorship, Republicans won control of the House in the 2024 election, shifting slim Democrats 56-54 hold on the chamber to a 58-52 Republican majority. With control of the Legislature split, any new laws will likely need to find support on both sides of the aisle to have any hope of making it to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk.
“Unfortunately, bipartisanship was just a buzzword for some over the last two years. Now with a Republican majority in the House elected by the people and led by [Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.),] the radical liberal agenda of the previous trifecta will cease, and we can now focus on finding real solutions, providing real leadership in a bipartisan manner for the good people of Michigan,” said Senate Minority Leader Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) while offering a statement welcoming his legislative colleagues back to the chamber.
Over the past two years, Democrats advanced a wide range of policies, including reforming gun laws, repealing Right to Work, eliminating the state’s 1931 ban on abortion, amending the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, and supporting funding for free breakfast and lunch in schools.
In her speech, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said she looked forward to working in partnership with Republicans this term.
“Things look mostly the same over here, unlike across the rotunda, where today signifies a new chapter. And I want to express my congratulations to Speaker Hall and to [House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton)] and all of the returning and new members of the House. I have every expectation that, together with Gov. Whitmer, we will be able to accomplish great things for our state,” Brinks said.
Underscoring the calls for bipartisanship, the first Senate bills introduced were the long-running effort from Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) to subject the governor, lieutenant governor and Legislature to the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) beginning in 2027.
Members of the Senate voted to send FOIA reform to the House at the end of June last year, with all but two members of the 38-person chamber supporting the bill. The bills were voted out of the House Government Operations Committee in December with one minor tweak to the wording, but the bills were left on the table as attendance issues and infighting within the House left the chamber unable to hold session and vote on bills.
Moss said his Senate Bill 1 and McBroom’s Senate Bill 2 are the same policies that cleared the House Government Operations Committee. With Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) moving Wednesday to put the bills before the entire Senate — an unusual move — they’ve been teed up for a vote as soon as possible, Moss said.
“We have to start off the year prioritizing this. Obviously, it was a huge disappointment after this long effort that the Senate led last term to not see this make it to the governor’s desk just a month ago,” Moss said.
“We are putting our marker in the sand here today that we want to ensure that we have an ethical, honest and transparent government here in Lansing, and that residents have all the access and ability to request the most inside documents of how our state government runs,” Moss said.
Senate Democrats also introduced legislation to address changes to the state’s minimum wage and sick leave laws set to take effect on Feb. 21. In July, the Michigan Supreme Court found that the 2018 Legislature, which was controlled by Republicans, had violated subverted the will of the people by adopting and amending two ballot initiatives, effectively gutting the efforts.
As a result, the state minimum wage is set to increase to $12.48 an hour while the separate tipped minimum wage will be phased out by 2030. Employers with fewer than 10 employees must offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave while businesses with 10 or more employees must offer a full 72 hours of paid sick leave.
A host of business groups oppose the decision. A 2024 survey conducted by the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association estimated the tipped wage and paid sick leave changes would significantly harm the hospitality industry, leading to the loss of an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 restaurant jobs.
Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores), would slow the increase in the tipped minimum wage, stopping short of a full phase out with the tipped minimum wage set to increase to 60% of the state minimum wage by 2035. However, it calls for further increases to the hourly minimum wage beyond what is laid out in incoming law.
While the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act taking effect in February would raise the hourly minimum wage to $14.97 beginning Feb. 1, 2028, Hertel’s bill would raise the wage to $15 beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
Senate Bill 15 sponsored by Singh, raises the incoming Earned Sick Time Act definition of a small business from a business with less than 10 employees to less than 25 employees, and permits small businesses to instead provide their employees with 40 hours of paid sick leave and 30 hours of unpaid sick leave at the beginning of the year, as opposed to the 40 hours of paid leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave accrued through the year.
It also allows businesses to front load their employees’ 72 hours of required sick leave at the beginning of the year, rather than having them accrue it. The bill also removes language presuming a violation from employers who take adverse action against employees who take action against violations of the Earned Sick Time Act, and allowing employees to bring civil action against their employer for alleged violations of the act.
Adding the ability to frontload time off and removing the language presuming a violation and allowing employees a private right to action were among the demands listed by a coalition of more than 70 business groups in November.
The tipped minimum-wage and paid leave changes were a key sticking point for Michigan House Republicans, who walked out of the chamber on Dec. 13 and refused to attend any further session days after Democratic leadership opted not to act on bills to preserve the tipped wage and moderate the paid sick leave changes.
On Wednesday, Republicans introduced their own bills in the House to curb some of the minimum wage and paid sick leave changes set to go into effect next month.
With the issue bringing all policy conversations with Republicans to a grinding halt in the House, Moss said this issue cannot continue to hold up the business of the state.
“Here we are making an offering that, let’s have a policy discussion. Because we need to take on every issue affecting every Michigander this term, and we don’t want this thing to be something that holds up the business of the state of Michigan,” Moss said.
The tipped wage and paid leave issues remained a top priority for Nesbitt, calling it “the first order of business” while criticizing Democrats for failing to take action on the policy in the latter half of 2023.
“It’s good to see that [Democrats are] ready, finally coming to the table when we have a Republican House. But at the end of the day, over the last several decades, over the last 70 years, we’ve had a whole industry built around this. And my No. 1 priority is, how do you save the 50,000 restaurant jobs in the state of Michigan? And so I’m willing to work with anybody anyhow to find that solution,” Nesbitt said.
“If this goes into effect the way it is, prices are going to go up, people are going to be laid off and at the end of the day, we’re going to have less employment, higher prices in the state of Michigan,” Nesbitt said.
Alongside efforts on FOIA reform, the tipped wage and paid sick time, lawmakers also introduced a package of bills to create a prescription drug affordability board, Senate Bills 3 to 5. If approved, this board would have the authority to set upper payment limits on medications sold in the state.
While the Senate previously approved bills to create a prescription drug affordability in a party line vote, the bills ultimately died without a vote in the House Insurance and Financial Services Committee.
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