State to Phase Out Lifeline Telephone Subsidy – Whitmer Signs Multiple Bills

Michigan’s subsidized Lifeline telephone service could disappear soon.

The program requires telecom companies to provide subsidized landline telephone service for low-income residents.

At one time, it was very popular. In recent years, though, the number of customers using it has fallen by 95 percent, to just around 6,000.

Yesterday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a law that will allow landline providers to opt out beginning in 2022. Whitmer encouraged providers to give the remaining customers plenty of advance notice, and to help them find alternatives.

The federal government operates a similar program, which provides a $9.25 monthly discount to low-income individuals for phone or internet service.

Whitmer applied her pen to a number of other bills yesterday as well. Among them…
– Bills that allow individuals born to unmarried parents before 1978 to request their birth records through their local registrar. Under current law, these individuals must often pay a higher fee and travel to Lansing to retrieve the records.
– Bills that amend the Freedom of Information Act to allow state agencies to make publications available in electronic format, change the fee formula for records provided in electronic format, and allow requesters to stipulate if they want the responses be emailed, faxed or mailed.   

 – Bills that will allow recipients of community mental health services the right to mediate disputes with mental health service providers.

 – Bills that will extend the time during which individuals who are wrongfully incarcerated can apply for compensation. 

 – Bills that will require longer prison terms for repeat child abuse offenders.