Another deplorable session of the Michigan Legislature died officially on Wednesday. RIP.
This is the sesssion where legislators tried to rewrite toxic cleanup standards to protect a powerful chemical corporation, dodged their responsibility to save the Great Lakes by creating water conservation standards, further slashed the environmental and natural resources budget, and took repeated shots at wetlands protection. Fine example for our descendants.
Michigan Legislature officially adjourns for the year
December 30, 2004, 12:49 AM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Lawmakers officially closed shop Wednesday.
They adjourned the legislative session sine die, Latin for "without day." It marked the official last day of the Legislature.
Though largely a formality, sine die is important in one way because many new laws will take effect 90 days after the session's end. Legislation that was not passed died Wednesday and has to be reintroduced next session.
Only a handful of senators and representatives were in attendance for the final day. They mostly discussed New Year's plans while waiting for the session to end at noon.
Lawmakers unofficially finished business Dec. 9. They will return Jan. 12, when representatives are sworn in for a two-year term and senators begin the third year of a four-year term. The state Constitution requires lawmakers to start the next session by meeting on the second Wednesday in January.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer is scheduled to deliver her third State of the State speech Feb. 2 in the House chamber.
Unlike previous years, sine die was uneventful.
In 2002, former Gov. John Engler wanted the Senate to pass a bill authorizing up to 15 more charter schools for Detroit. Time ran out at noon, and he failed to get the 20 votes needed to pass the bill.
In 1999, sine die was staged three weeks earlier than normal to ward off a challenge to a law affecting where police, firefighters and other city workers can live.
The 90-day mark after sine die is the deadline to turn in referendum petition signatures. A group threatened a referendum to overturn the new law and lawmakers knew holding sine die earlier gave organizers less time to collect the needed signatures.