3 months, 7 bills: Michigan lawmakers moving slow as campaign season looms

Michigan’s politically divided Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer finalized seven new laws in the first three months of 2026
The slow start follows a historically slow 2025, when lawmakers passed the fewest bills since the Civil War
With campaign season looming, experts predict legislators may not do much more than pass a budget, which is constitutionally required

LANSING — Michigan’s politically divided Legislature is off to another historically slow start, sending Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just seven bills through the first three months of 2026.

That’s a slight increase from last year — when lawmakers finalized six bills in the first six months of session — but it’s also the slowest pace in an even-numbered year this century, according to a review by Bridge Michigan.

With lawmakers expected to leave Lansing this summer to hit the campaign trail ahead of fall elections, experts predict the glacial pace could continue.

“We may, in fact, really not see much movement other than a budget all this year, unless we see a deal on property taxes,” said Republican strategist John Sellek, founder and CEO of the Lansing-based Harbor Strategic communications firm.

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Amid high costs for housing and other living expenses, property tax reform has been high on the to-do list for several lawmakers, including House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township. But he has not yet introduced a plan, and his public comments suggest the forthcoming proposal will be complicated.

Among other initiatives facing an uncertain future in the politically polarized Capitol: A medical debt relief plan approved by the Democratic-led Senate, funding for a new runway and infrastructure upgrades at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base approved by the Republican-led House, and a potential business incentive “deal” that Whitmer and Hall teased last year.

And then there’s the budget. The process proved contentious last year, the first since Republicans won back the state House to end a short-lived Democratic trifecta.

Lawmakers blew past a July 1 budget deadline written into state law and then missed an Oct. 1 deadline mandated by the state Constitution, passing a stopgap spending measure to avoid the first state government shutdown in 16 years.

Hall has defended the minimal lawmaking in Lansing, arguing quality matters more than quantity. In a statement, he told Bridge he’s optimistic the Legislature can get “a property tax cut deal done this year.”

Hall has also personally blocked a top priority for Senate Democrats, who last year advanced a government transparency proposal to expand Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act by subjecting the governor and lawmakers to public records requests.

Asked about the prospects for legislative action this year, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids pointed to laws Democrats passed in 2023 when they were still in charge, including elimination of the so-called “retirement tax” and expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for lower-income residents.

But there is “certainly more we can get done” this year, Brinks said, telling Bridge that other top priorities for her caucus include lowering child care costs and prescription drug prices. “We certainly hope to have willing partners in the House on all of those things,” she said in a statement.

While lawmakers are off on their legislative spring break this week, both chambers will be back in the Capitol on Tuesday. In the meantime, here’s where things stand in Lansing.

Bill breakdown

More than 2,600 bills have been introduced between the Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate since the current, two-year term started on Jan. 1, 2025.

Whitmer signed 76 of those bills into law in 2025, making it the lowest performing legislative year since 1842, according to the Michigan Information and Research Service Inc. Nearly half of the new laws — 36 — were signed in December during a year-end flurry.

As of 2026, five of the seven bills signed into law this year originated in the Republican-led House, where Hall has at times vocally opposed passing legislation from Senate Democrats.

The second year of two-year terms are typically more productive than the first because lawmakers have learned to work together and already introduced many bills. But so far, 2026 is the slowest start to the second year of a term since at least 1998, which is as far back as legislative records are immediately available.

What’s been signed into law so far this year:

Two bills to ban smartphones from public school classrooms, a long-running effort of lawmakers from both major political parties
Two bills dealing with death certificates, streamlining the certification process and requiring certificates be filed within 48 hours of a death
A bill to renew an interstate medical compact Michigan participates in, keeping 8,000 doctors licenses from expiring in the process. Both chambers wanted to renew, but the legislation stalled for months amid a political debate over which lawmakers would get credit
A measure allowing Harsens Island in St. Clair County to utilize tax incremental financing for downtown development purposes. It was approved as part of a deal on the medical compact bill
Most recently, a bill to designate the wood duck as Michigan’s first official state duck.

Hall, the House speaker, claimed credit for having “personally negotiated deals to ban cellphones in classrooms” and for renewing Michigan’s participation in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact which stopped an estimated 8,000 medical licenses from lapsing in late March.

Brinks, however, said she felt more could still be done in terms of bill movement, adding that “if the speaker is interested in passing policy, there are hundreds of bipartisan Senate bills currently sitting in his chamber.”

The George Romney building and the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, MI on April 30, 2025. — As peak campaigning season creeps closer in Michigan, some believe that the modest legislative work lawmakers have already done this year may grind to a halt. (Annie Barker for Bridge Michigan)

What’s at stake

Late last year, legislative leaders told Bridge several policy proposals they hoped to advance in 2026, including greater literacy supports for Michigan students, property tax relief, government transparency and more.

But in the last three months, the debate over property tax relief has taken center stage.

Whitmer proposed a property tax refund of up to 10% for Michigan seniors 65 and older as part of her recent state budget pitch. Hall floated a plan to eliminate a state property tax in February, and has suggested paying for it through new service taxes, but he has not yet introduced any bills.

In the Democratic-led Senate, Brinks told Bridge she’s open to the concept of property tax relief but said it should be “directed toward working people, not corporations and the super wealthy.”

Brinks added she’d also be “happy to review the Speaker’s proposal once he gets around to introducing it.”

Outside of tax reform, Whitmer has urged the Legislature to provide some form of relief to Michiganders saddled with medical debt.

The Senate approved bipartisan legislation in March that would:

Cap interest on medical debt
Establish how and when hospitals and debt collectors can recoup unpaid medical debt
Require hospitals to create and promote financial assistance programs
Barring hospitals from trying to collect debts incurred during any time it was not in compliance with federal hospital price transparency laws and regulations
Outlining the power a hospital’s board of trustees has in determining a patient’s need for financial assistance under the Senate’s recently passed Hospital Financial Assistance Act

Hall hasn’t ruled out House action on medical debt, but he said any final plan should include “hospital price transparency and mechanisms to rein in out of control hospital costs.”

Whether lawmakers agree on any major reforms remains an open question. Some are skeptical given the partisan dynamics in a high-stakes election year.

“If you have a situation where you have a divided Legislature, or a divided government, you’re not going to see a ton of stuff get through,” said former Gongwer News Service publisher John Lindstrom, a longtime fixture at the State Capitol.

“I would not be surprised to see the final budget not completed until close to the end of September.”