December 15, 1994

Legislative Week in Review

• The 87th session of the state legislature ended Wednesday as it began, with spirited debate on school funding. Eleventh-hour compromise saw the chambers okaying legislation to reauthorize charter schools and to restore funding to eight existing charter academies whose continued state support had been jeopardized by a court ruling. SB 1103 amends the charter statute earlier ruled unconstitutional by an Ingham County circuit court judge. An interim funding bill (SB 887) providing current-year operating funds to most extant charter schools passed the House and Senate on votes of 87-5 and 30-2, respectively, as the legislature’s last substantive action. Not covered in the provisional funding bill is Noah Webster Academy, the computer-linked home school network.
• Effectively killing an assisted suicide bill, the Senate received without action a House version of SB 1311, which named conferees to iron out differences between the chambers including whether to send the issue to voters in 1996. Legislative disposition of the emotionally charged issue got a nudge Tuesday from the Michigan Supreme Court in the form of an usual evening decision that upheld the validity of an earlier, temporary prohibition that noted that assisting in a suicide is proscribed under common law and declaring that there exists no constitutional right to assisted suicide. The issue is not closed, with partisans on both sides vowing to raise it in the next legislative session.
• A vision of expanded optometric practice became reality last week after a decade of wrangling. House concurrence to Senate changes in HB 4331 will permit optometrists to diagnose and treat patients over the opposition of ophthalmologists, who expressed keen disappointment at the measure’s passage in the waning hours of a lame-duck session.
• At the time, Governor Engler’s executive-ordered reorganization of the Department of Natural Resources in 1992 spawned a squabble that reached the Michigan Supreme Court. Last week, SB 257 codified the once-controversial restructuring that includes the elimination of 19 boards and commissions.

Political News

• New gubernatorial chief of staff Sharon Rothwell continues a tradition of husband/wife teams in Engler administrations. The replacement for Dan Pero—whose wife served as director of state affairs—is the former director of the Office of the State Employer and is married to the CEO of the Michigan Jobs Commission. Top executive office staff reporting to Sharon Rothwell remain unchanged, although press secretary John Truscott assumes the additional title of communications director while former director Rusty Hills has been named public affairs director.
• At press time Thursday, pay raises of up to 15 percent for state department directors and other unclassified employees had not received the required approval of the House Appropriations Committee. The governor’s requested fund transfer to implement the salary hikes for his top administrators needs approval from the appropriations panel in both chambers, not from the entire legislature. The Senate committee has given its nod to the proposal.
• When Congress reconvenes next month, it will contain the first Republican chairman from Michigan in 40 years. Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Holland will chair the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee. In other committee assignments, GOP Rep. Joe Knollenberg of Bloomfield Hills has been appointed to the appropriations committee. Several key retirements and Republican control of Congress have diminished the state’s congressional committee clout from the past session, when Democratic Michigan delegation members chaired four committees and two subcommittees.
• Under a constitutionally mandated timetable, the 88th session of the Michigan legislature convenes on January 11. Regular publication of Roundup will resume on January 19.