LANSING (WKZO AM/FM) — Governor Snyder waited until late on the Friday before a New Year’s holiday to announce a majority the bills he signed and the bills he vetoed, knowing wide spread criticism would come no matter what he did.
He signed measures that will make it more difficult to conduct petition initiatives, by requiring more of the petition gatherers, despite opposition from citizens groups on the left and right.
Snyder also signed legislation that will give local governments more flexibility and authority to dictate when fireworks can be used in their communities.
He also signed bills preventing the state agencies from adopting rules and regulations that are more stringent than federal government rules, unless they can present substantial arguments why they should be stricter. Environmental groups opposed it, saying it will prevent them from setting tougher restrictions on chemical contaminants like PFAS.
The vast majority of the bills were tiny technical regulations like increasing the moisture levels in sugar beet soil and allowing police dogs to ride in ambulances.
Some significant and controversial bills got vetoed, including bills that would have allowed the legislature to intervene on lawsuits, a big package of bills that would have allowed a wide range of online, sports and fantasy gambling, and bills that would have limited local regulation of pet stores.
He also vetoed a bill that would have shielded political PACs from being forced to reveal the identity of dark money donors. It was a bill opposed by Kalamazoo officials because of their promise to be transparent in releasing the names of donors to the Foundation for Excellence.
They are now all headed for the trash bin of history.
The Governor also signed that half billion dollar supplemental budget that will put more money in the rainy-day fund, clean up environmental messes and fix roads.
It also includes dozens of smaller projects proposed by legislators for their local districts,
expenditures that some call pork unless the funding is coming to their area.
The measure would also commit $8-million dollars to Illinois for the Brandon Road Dam Project to prevent Asian Carp from getting into the Great Lakes, even though the Governor of Illinois had already announced he was declining the offer, saying as a lame duck Governor, it would be inappropriate for him to bind the state to any future course of action on a project that has not been finalized.
