HB4037 will let non-residents serve in local elected offices.  Carpetbaggers around the state cheer.

HB4038 permits the use of medical marijuana.  People with glaucoma and people who can fake it like rap stars and nine out of ten students in the Ottawa Hills High School class of 1997 cheer.  Oh, so do the lawyers who'll get to fight this thing in the federal courts after it gets tossed out on appeal like the similar laws several other states have attempted.

HB4039 will unionize principals and public school administrators.  Or, well, permit them to unionize.  The UAW and Teamsters cheer.

HB4040 bails out the Detroit Public schools by foisting their operating deficits onto the state.  Noone cheers.

HB4041 grants prisoners in Michigan jails more phone privileges.  Career criminals and felons cheer.

OK, I need to take a deep breath.  That's a lot of... stuff.  Now if only the good representative would have squeezed in oooooone less bone to crazy constituent groups and one more bone for, I don't know, school kids or taxpayers.

Alright, ready for more?  I know I am.  Macomb County Democrat Fred Miller took full advantage of majority status.  He was so upset with the structural deficit, and so worried about making sure our schools didn't have to close early or cancel programs that he took immediate action to find a solution.  I like to imagine that on January 1, after being sworn in, he went immediately to his office, shut the doors, closed the windows and started working feverishly.  Whether he did or not is irrelevant, the legislation he produced has the potential to really really really fix our problems.

HB4050 regulates the use of gift cards.  You know, those faux-credit cards you bought for your cousin Samantha and great uncle Jim last Christmas because you really had no idea what else to get them?  Yep.  Don't worry. Sam and James can sleep better tonight knowing that Fred Miller's working for them, and you can rest easier too.  If Best Buy ever has a liquidation sale, their gift cards will still be valid!

Someone should really take out a full page newspaper ad to trumpet the news.  

Not to be out-done, State Rep. Ted Hammon has introduced HB4086.  Nope, this one doesn't eliminate MESSA, cap welfare benefits or encourage consolidation of services either.  But boy is it important!  It allows for wine tasting in wine retail shops!  Apparently, for some members of the Dem majority, finding new and creative ways of getting sauced is more important than eliminating a $370 million hole in this year's school aid budget.

Introduced by another Macomb native, Steve Bieda, HB4001 is maybe my favorite of them all.  And I promise I'm not making this up.  It creates a legal defense fund for public officials.  Come again?  The State's in crisis, Chrysler's about to lay-off another 11,000 people, the governor's trying to push through a poor tax and you want to expand the budget by creating a legal defense fund for public officials?  And from what, exactly, do you need to be defended, Steve?  You screw up and break the law, mismanage the government and violate the public trust all I'm willing to help pay for is your one-way ticket out of Lansing.

See?  I told you it was an impressive list.  These are only a few of the bills Andy Dillon's new democrat majority in the House thought were more important than dealing with the state's economy and the astronomical job losses, continuing to land blow after blow to Michigan families.

What does it say about the House democrat's priorities?  What does that say about Dillon's?

I don't know what it says, but it sure as heck doesn't say Dillon takes our problems seriously.