March 27, 2026 | This Week in Government: One Fair Wage Fails to Turn in Signatures for Referendum

The group that sought to block the minimum wage law passed by the Legislature last year did not turn in signatures by its due date Monday, the Department of State said.

Monday marks the 90th day following the Legislature’s sine die adjournment last year. Neither Voters to Stop Pay Cuts, the group which received approval to collect signatures to put a referendum of the minimum wage law passed last year on the ballot, nor One Fair Wage, the larger organization supporting the efforts, turned in signatures.

The Department of State confirmed Monday was the deadline, and it had not received signatures. One Fair Wage did not return multiple requests for comment.

Crain’s Detroit Business reported One Fair Wage, in a statement, said it ended its efforts to collect the more than 223,000 signatures needed to put a referendum of PA 1 of 2025 on the ballot. Organizers said they would support a proposal collecting signatures for a different proposal to ban political contributions by corporations and companies that hold significant state and local government contracts.

If organizers had turned in signatures, PA 1 would have been paused until November 2026. The law passed last year increases the regular minimum wage but does not bring up the minimum wage for tipped workers to 100% of the regular minimum wage, which One Fair Wage supports. Instead, lawmakers agreed to increase the tipped minimum wage to 50% of the regular wage by 2031.

Voters to Stop Pay Cuts received approval to collect signatures in June 2025. It never created a ballot committee and did not file campaign finance reports. One Fair Wage organizers said the larger group was providing in-kind contributions for Voters to Stop Pay Cuts, and the organization would file the paperwork to create a committee. No committee existed as of Monday.

Lawmakers passed the minimum wage changes after the Supreme Court ordered the 2018 initiated law to take effect as adopted by a GOP-led Legislature. Lawmakers quickly amended the law following the November 2018 election, which the court ruled unconstitutional.

The restaurant industry was particularly concerned about the tipped minimum wage increasing to 100% of the regular wage.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation on Thursday to ensure Michigan remains in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.

HB 5455, sponsored by Rep. Rylee Linting, R-Wyandotte, was signed Thursday morning and is now PA 6 of 2026.

The compact is an agreement among states to streamline licensing requirements for physicians who want to practice in multiple states. The intent of the compact is to make it easier for patients to access medical care, particularly through telemedicine and underserved areas.

“I’m committed to protecting access to health care and growing small business,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Communities across our state, especially in rural areas, are already facing a shortage of health care workers. Historic federal cuts to Medicaid are raising health care costs for everyone. That’s why I’m signing a bipartisan bill to ensure 5,000 doctors can continue practicing in Michigan and making a difference in their communities. … Let’s keep working together to protect access to health care and make a difference for Michiganders.”

Michigan became a member of the compact in September 2019. The original law had a sunset in 2022, which was extended to March 28, 2025. The Legislature did not extend the sunset last year, but the state’s withdrawal was not official until March 28, 2026.

Whitmer signing the bill ensures the state remains in the compact. Physician organizations sounded the alarm in recent weeks about the state exiting the compact, saying thousands could lose their ability to operate in the state.

The Legislature stalled on the bills as the House and Senate passed dueling versions that remained untouched by the other chamber for much of 2025.

Last week, before the House left on its spring break, House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, reached an agreement.

Along with Linting’s bill, the House approved SB 581, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-Saint Clair Shores. Both Linting and Hertel represent marginal districts.

Hertel’s SB 581 was also signed Thursday and is now PA 5.

The bill would allow downtown development authorities to include one or more separate and distinct geographic areas in a business district if the municipality were located on the mainland and one or more islands and a body of water.

Whitmer also signed HB 4044, now PA 7, which was sponsored by Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn. The bill designates the wood duck as the official state duck.

Dual enrollment rates grew nearly 60% at Schoolcraft College after the state began funding tuition and fees for students, according to the data gathered from a pilot program.

The program was funded by a $1.2 million from the state in 2023 and covered all tuition and fees for students. Students from five high schools in Oakland and Wayne counties were eligible to participate.

Enrollment grew from 585 students before the program was launched to 704 at its launch. Currently, Schoolcraft College has 950 high school students dual-enrolled in college courses. The results of the program were shown before the Senate Appropriations Universities and Community Colleges Subcommittee on Wednesday.

“Both the school districts and the colleges report a much healthier relationship as it relates to dual enrollment when money is taken off of the table, and we can really focus on conversations of what’s in the best interest for students,” said Brandy Johnson, president of the Michigan Community Colleges Association.

She said dual enrollment has numerous benefits, like increasing high school graduation rates, and higher college enrollment rates. Dual enrollment can also help students save money before entering college by allowing them to enter university with credits and help students feel more comfortable with the idea of going to college.

She said although community colleges provide 85% of dual enrollment students in the state, only about 7 to 8% of high school students participated in dual enrollment last year.

“Despite the documented benefits of dual enrollment, Michigan is near the bottom nationally,” she said. “One of the reasons we think this is is because of this natural disincentive or perverse incentive … that requires high schools pay for all of the dual enrollment tuition and fees out of their foundation allowance.”

The Michigan Community College Association recommends the state appropriate $60 million to reimburse all school districts for the required costs for dual enrollment. In the governor’s current budget recommendation, $20 million would be given to districts.

This policy recommendation would expand access to dual enrollment for students across the state, Johnson said.

Overall, the rate of people enrolled in community college statewide has increased.

Sen. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, asked what demographics are seeing the greatest increase in enrollment.

Johnson said the rate of students who are just graduating high school enrolling in these programs are similar to what they’ve been in previous years, but adult students who are returning to the classroom are driving rates up.

“Financial aid is a huge reason but specifically the Michigan Reconnect Program has really provided an opportunity for adults to come back and enroll,” she said.

McCann asked how this would factor into the governor’s “60 by 30” goal, which is the plan to increase the number of working-age adults with a skill certificate or college degree in the state from around the current 50% to 60% by 2030.

Johnson said they are seeing incremental increases year-by-year, and the state’s investments towards financial aid are directly contributing to the goal.

Key benefactors of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity touted their successes and their funding requests in hopes to increase budgets that all faced either stagnancy or cuts in last year’s budget negotiations.

The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity saw some significant cuts in the final 2025-26 fiscal year budget with a 25% reduction overall, a $690.7 million reduction in total and $577.4 million General Fund. The executive budget recommendation for the 2026-27 fiscal year reduces the budget again by 2.8% from $1.7 billion to $1.6 billion.

Now, departments and organizations are looking to toss some money back their way, testifying at the Senate Appropriations LEO and MEDC Subcommittee on what they support from the governor’s recommendation and what else they need.

A key driver for the current year reduction at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation was the sunset of the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, axing $500 million from the budget including line items for the Strategic Site Readiness Program.

Now, Calvin Myers, chief financial officer at the MEDC emphasized the importance of reinvesting $150 million into the Strategic Site Readiness Program to compete with states that have been putting hundreds of millions of dollars for decades as part of the executive recommendation in a supplemental.

The supplemental would support $100 million for sites with an unknown end user and $50 million for sites with a known end user.

“While Michigan has made great strides, we need to keep our foot on the gas to leverage private investment through investment in our communities,” Myers said.

Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, raised her concerns that the request for site readiness funding request is more than all other funding requests combined in the LEO budget while the Legislature allocated $260 million in site readiness hoping there would be a CHIPS Act award from the federal government that never materialized.

Christin Armstrong, chief operating and performance officer at the MEDC, blamed tariffs and global economic issues during an election year as to why there is a slow down in investment.

“We don’t expect that to last too long as things continue to settle, so the pipeline remains active. I think there’s just a little bit more caution in decision making as folks try to see what happens in November,” Armstrong said.

She said the request is so expensive because their MI Sites Program evaluated that funding will be needed to expand public infrastructure required for business investment, specifically in water and wastewater systems.

Armstrong also assured that the Mundy Township site, which lost its end user this past summer, causing heartburn on a project priority for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, “continues to have a lot of interest.”

The Michigan Strategic Fund just approved two large site readiness projects Tuesday to address aging water and wastewater infrastructure in Coopersville and Norton Shores to expand Chobani and fairlife operations.

Sen. Mark Huizenga, R-Walker, applauded the investment, saying they were expecting “great diversification” of Michigan industries following the deal, and said while “recognizing that budgets are tighter, these leverage projects like that are absolutely critical.”

Huizenga also championed the site readiness projects, saying they are real long-term investments.

“You have to create a place, a landing zone, for site selectors that fly in from around the country and are looking for particular characteristics,” Huizenga said.

Myers also highlighted the ongoing funding recommended of $59.4 million for the Business Attraction and Community Revitalization Program, which saw a $40 million reduction in last year’s budget.

He said the funding was core to helping small businesses get started and grow, core to the department’s work.

Other ongoing funding Myers said they supported included $15.65 million for entrepreneurship support funds including the SmartZones for small business development and $35.9 million for job creation services through the MEDC including $18.5 million for administrative funds, $7 million brownfield programs, $5.6 million in federal grants and $4.8 million for staffing in community development programs.

On the other hand, Armstrong also highlighted the 40% reduction in the current year budget, which she said will impact how they move forward and that fill effects to that change will “become clear as the year moves forward.”

Michigan State Housing Development Authority Executive Director Amy Hovey said the agency’s continued $50 million investment into the Housing and Community Development Fund has led to major moves on their unit building goal of 115,000 units by 2035. Around 87,000 units are online now.

In breaking down that $50 million, Hovey said one area of need is the employer-assisted housing program backed by $10 million. The program offers support to employers investing in workforce housing, contributing matching funds for development. Those funds, Hovey said, went very quickly.

Only around 5% of MSHDA’s funds come from state funds compared to federal funds.

As federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are still up in the air with litigation on the cancellation of some of those grants, Lisa Kemmis, chief housing solutions officer, said they are monitoring it but presume those funds will be released soon. However, the agency may not have the funds before the grants expire. She said it’s been a big concern to stabilize the projects but have been looking at their own resources and complementing programs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Detroit Right to Counsel made their argument to restore one-time appropriations of $1.5 million cut from the executive recommendation. The funding goes toward the city ordinance in Detroit that helps renters receive a free lawyer to aid them in court on rental disputes including eviction.

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield is advocating that the state budget allocates an additional $3 million to the program for the legal services.

With the purse strings pulled tight, Diamond Conley, the executive director of the program, said state grant funding is likely to last about eight months or through February 2027.

In 2025, the group provided full representation for 8,655 tenants with a total cost of $6.8 million, having to utilize other funding partners to meet the need of the ordinance. Since 2023, the group has represented 16,283 tenants, leading to 8,600 tenants retaining possession of their homes.

Conley said the funding helps save the court money down the road due to less case filings and the cases being less time consuming, as the tenants tend to understand the eviction court process more with their counsel.

There are also indirect solutions as well: elevating mental and physical health while keeping people off the streets, lowering health care costs with health and assisting with shelters costs the more people get to stay in their homes, Conley said.

The Michigan Community Development Financial Institutions Coalition also presented their case to reallocate funds for grant programs. The executive recommendation also removed $5 million in one-time funding from the last budget after being created in the 2023 fiscal year.

The coalition works to provide loans to small businesses and individuals that cannot access traditional financing, mostly to support affordable housing and redevelopment projects.

The coalition is calling for the fund to become permanent and provide annual funding of $20 million, including $10 million for grants to institutions and $10 million to create a new CDFI Impact Loan Fund to allow the institutions to borrow low-cost capital in growing their lending programming.

The coalition works to provide loans to small businesses and individuals that cannot access traditional financing, mostly to support affordable housing and redevelopment projects.

As of fiscal year 2024, the coalition of 55 institutions deployed $6.3 billion in loans to support over 1,500 projects, over 26,000 small businesses and 18,000 housing units, 72% of which are affordable housing specific, according to Jennifer Hayes, senior vice president of public policy at Invest Detroit.

Hayes said the ask would create a more sustainable model to the grant programs as a revolving fund while the coalition takes a lot of additional risks in startups.

The Michigan Democratic Party is calling for voters to vote no on the ballot proposal asking whether the state should hold a Constitutional Convention.

The Con-Con question will be Proposal 2026-1 in November. Another proposal poised to make the ballot would require proof of citizenship for voters. Organizers turned in signatures, but it has not yet been certified for the ballot.

On Saturday, the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee endorsed a no vote on both proposals.

Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel called the citizen voting proposal a “voter suppression,” tactic.

“The voter suppression ballot measure, that submitted petition signatures earlier this month with the hope of getting on the November ballot, is a blatant attempt from Michigan Republicans to make it harder to vote and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michiganders,” Hertel said in a statement. “This measure would put in place burdensome requirements for voters, force many to re-register to vote, and only make the voting process more difficult. Michigan’s elections are safe and secure, and this is just a power-grab attempt from Michigan Republicans who are desperate to limit access to the ballot box.”

The Democratic Party is the latest organization to oppose the Constitutional Convention. Last week, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Education Association, Michigan AFL-CIO, and Business Leaders for Michigan, among others, joined the formal opposition group urging a no-vote.

“A Constitutional Convention would be a long and drawn-out process where wealthy insiders and special interests would attempt to re-write Michigan’s Constitution and put at risk the progress that voters have passed in recent years, including protecting abortion rights and establishing a nonpartisan redistricting process,” Hertel said. “Voters have rejected previous constitutional conventions by large margins, and it’s crucial that Michiganders once again reject a constitutional convention this November.”