LANSING - Since Governor Rick Snyder issued a gag order on local governments and municipalities on January 6, 2016 there has been quite the uproar.

"Well what it basically says is that local governments cannot inform their citizens about issues that are on the ballot," stated Curtis Hertel Jr., Michigan State Senator of the 23rd District.

"I'm thinking I have to censor the public, I can't allow the public to ask a candidate a question about how they stand on a ballot issue," mentioned Deborah Guthrie, Communications Director of Meridian Township.

Due to the vast majority of complaints, a public hearing was held on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at the House Office Building to listen to different testimonies, many extremely unhappy with the current law.

Meridian Township Manager Frank Walsh spoke up and shared his opinion at the stand.

"This law would cripple affect a lot of communities ability to communicate effectively and be transparent with the people that they serve. Doesn't it make sense to go after the 4 or 5 out of the thousands that have violated this and hold them accountable in any way that you deem appropriate..isn't that the avenue to take rather than cast this net on all of us?"

"While we appreciate the attempt to clarify the language, we cannot support 521, we urge you to fully repeal the new language and restore local communities and schools the right to inform their electorate about what is on the ballot," Director of Government Relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards Jennifer Smith said.

Director of State of Affairs from the Michigan Municipal League Chris Hackbarth even brought up a more statistical standpoint.

"The two dozen complaints that have been filed under section 57 since 2012, 13 of them were found to be in violation of the act and 11 of them were found to not be in violation. Of those 24 only in section 57, there were only 7 that had anything to do with a local ballot question. Five of those were found to be in violation SO of the 24, only 5 were found to be in violation of section 57…one of those was the improper use of a fax machine. Of the other complaints that were filed, 7 had to do with State Rep. campaigns and 9 had to do with local candidates for their own election."

Chair Lisa Lyons spoke up mentioning "We are just not wanting taxpayer dollars to go to influence or advocate and so that's kinda where we're struggling at this point."

Although House Bill 5219 seems to propose a claimed "fix" to the gag order, many disagree.

"As Executive Producer of HOMTV I'm thinking I can't ask a question of a candidate, I can't ask them how they stand on an issue…I'm thinking I have to censor the public, I can't allow the public to ask a candidate a question about how they stand on a ballot issue, I can't provide verbatim graphical information on the HOMTV channel saying this is exactly what the ballot language says," Guthrie stated.

Senator Hertel Jr. felt strongly as well.

"Imagine if you're a township clerk and a citizen calls you up on your own work phone and says "explain to me what this millage does"…what are you gonna say "I can't, I can't tell you what it does?" To me that is completely wrong."

But to others, this law appears fair in its entirety.

"The only impact I see this having on local units of government is just forcing them to use non-government dollars to raise private funds to advocate for a ballot initiative," Director of Operations at the Michigan Freedom Fund Tony Daunt disclosed.

Daunt continued saying…"We support that legislation full throatily, full heartedly…we believe that it's great policy for Michigan tax payers and we intend to work very hard to make sure it stays in place."

So what does this law entail?

Section 57 of Senate Bill 571 states that there is a gag order placed on local governments and municipalities who receive tax funds.

This gag order prohibits any information regarding ballot proposals and millage's to be released to residents within 60 days of an election.

"It started out being a good bill that did good things that were all agreed upon by everybody and it ended up being a very partisan and nasty fight of the last session," Hertel Jr. stated.

As of right now, there has been a lot of back and forth discussion in terms of repealing the bill, but currently there has been no action on the proposed amendment.