Before the state Supreme Court held oral arguments Wednesday morning in the “stalled bills” case, MEA members and other public employees gathered outside the court building in Lansing for a press conference to share how the nearly two-year saga has impacted their lives and professions.

Since taking the gavel in January 2025, House Speaker Matt Hall has refused to send nine specific bills to the governor that passed both the House and Senate in December 2024. Among the bills being held up is House Bill 6058, which reduces skyrocketing health care costs for educators and other public employees.

In the meantime, educators and other public employees across the state have experienced several-hundred-dollar increases in the amount deducted from their paychecks for health coverage.

That includes MEA member Kim Sandefur, an elementary school teacher in Comstock Public Schools in Kalamazoo County and a constituent of Hall’s. She spoke at Wednesday’s press conference about the impact the 16-month delay in sending HB 6058 to the governor has had on her own family’s finances and those of other educators.

“The financial stress being placed on educators through Speaker Hall’s inaction is unsustainable — and it’s driving great Michigan educators out of the profession, leaving our kids without enough qualified teachers to provide them the education they need and deserve,” Sandefur said. “I’m one of many teachers and parents in Matt Hall’s district — and across the state — who are struggling and need our leaders to listen to us. We are eager for the Supreme Court to fix this and order the Speaker to finally send these bills to Gov. Whitmer for her signature.”

HB 6058 reforms former Gov. Rick Snyder’s 2011 “hard cap” law, which arbitrarily and shortsightedly limits how much school districts and other public employers can spend on employees’ health care.

The hard cap on employee benefit costs has not kept pace with inflation, leading educators to pay an increasingly higher share of their districts’ total health insurance premiums. This worsening financial stress is among the key drivers of the school employee shortage, with educators leaving the profession they love for careers with greater economic security.

The House and the Senate each passed HB 6058 in December 2024, and it was ordered to be enrolled and sent to the governor. However, as the calendar flipped to 2025 and the GOP officially took control of the House with Hall at the helm, the new speaker unconstitutionally blocked the bills from being transmitted to the governor, setting off an unprecedented legal stalemate.

The Democratic-led Senate filed a lawsuit against Hall and the House of Representatives, demanding that Hall fulfill his constitutional duty to transmit duly passed legislation to the governor. After working its way through the lower courts, the Michigan Court of Appeals sided with Senate Democrats in October, a ruling Hall subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court.

“The House is constitutionally obligated to transmit all bills that pass the legislature to the governor,” attorney Mark Brewer, counsel for the Michigan Senate, said outside the Supreme Court building as he prepared to enter for oral arguments. “We urge the Michigan Supreme Court to uphold Michigan’s Constitution and order the House to transmit these bills to the governor.”