Michigan Legislature Bills RSS Feed

This is an interesting find (if you are in Michigan and interested in what goes on in the Legislature). I was trying to get to actual source material on the budget issues going on in Lansing right now, when I came across this feed.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/RssFeeds/billupdate.xml

It is just a basic blurb on what is going on with the different bills. If you click on one of the items then you can pretty easily find out what the details of the bill are, which branches of government have reviewed or added to the documents, and where the bill is at in the process (e.g. introduced, read, sent to committee, passed, etc.).

So, for example, you can find out that this week they are looking at …

• Proposing a 10% discount for auto insurance for a good driving record
• Requiring a 3/5 vote of the legislature for any new tax (and require a sunset)
• Tuition breaks for military personnel
• Adding vanity license plates for the Griffins, Rampage, Whitecaps, and any other professional sports team that requests it and meets certain requirements (with the funds generated to go to Youth Foundations and the YMCA)
• Tax credits for companies hiring graduates of Michigan colleges or universities.

All seem like interesting ideas, but you don’t get the discussions (pro/con) from the floor – still an interesting way to keep up with things that might not be “press worthy.”