The Senate agreed to the title of the bill.
Senator Runestad asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Runestad’s statement is as follows:
This is a bill that I definitely do support, except I think it should be expanded to all citizens in the state of Michigan. Since I got elected, way back eight-and-a-half years ago, we have had constant calls from constituents who got bottled up in Treasury trying to get back their unclaimed property. Five years before I was elected to office, I was owed $800 from Chase Bank for an account that unfortunately Chase sent over to the state of Michigan. So I began the process five years before I was elected trying to get that money back.
They ran me through hoop, after hoop, after hoop, and had wanted me to produce some documents that didn’t even exist and were not even pertinent to getting that money back. Then after I got in elective office for two years, I would be sending them stuff. I eventually had Treasury come in, explained everything, showed them all the documentation, they finally—so that’s what, 10 years or something after I began the process to get that money—finally I got that $800 back. I think this is outrageous.
Treasury hangs onto that money with dear life. When somebody proves that they owe that money, and there’s nobody else, there was nobody else conceivable that could have produced all the documentation I had, and they still wouldn’t give me that money until I had to raise hell in my office. That shouldn’t have to happen; that a person has to be in elective office to get back that money. Treasury should be on the job getting this money back to these people as fast as possible and it shouldn’t just be veterans who are taken care of with this, but we should extend this to all citizens.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 389, entitled
A bill to amend 1995 PA 29, entitled “Uniform unclaimed property act,” by amending sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 17, and 18 (MCL 567.225, 567.226, 567.227, 567.228, 567.233, 567.235, 567.237, and 567.238), sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, and 17 as amended by 2010 PA 197 and section 18 as amended by 2020 PA 79, and by adding section 17a.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: