November 10, 1995

Legislative Week in Review

• The next two weeks can be expected to be relatively calm at the capitol. The House and Senate will adjourn for a Thanksgiving recess, resuming session on November 28. (The next issue of Roundup will appear on November 30.)
• With the legislative hiatus looming, 30 House Democrats joined their 56 Republican colleagues to enact the controversial welfare reform package passed last week in the Senate. House Bills 5353–4 will put Michigan in the national vanguard of states taking over redistribution of aid funds currently administered through federal entitlement programs.
• Senate Bill 728—the so-called environmental audit law that would provide legal immunity from sanctions for persons voluntarily disclosing pollution problems to government agencies—passed the upper chamber 25–10 after spirited debate. Supporters claim the measure encourages environmental self-policing, while detractors maintain that because it keeps most of polluters’ voluntary disclosures confidential, it amounts to giving them amnesty. Under the bill, disclosing the contents of an environmental audit would carry a fine of up to $25,000.
• In a case of legislative speed dialing, the rewrite of state telecommunications law passed the House and returned to the upper chamber a scant month after its introduction. Senate Bill 722 cleared the House 80–27 after hours of debate that often pitted outstate lawmakers (where rates are apt to increase) against representatives from urban areas (where rates are apt to benefit from statewide equalization). The aim of the legislation is to increase competition.
• That squeaking sound was the Nordhouse Dunes settlement finally gaining House approval on a bare minimum 56 votes. The lower-chamber lawmakers earlier had resisted authorizing payments to investors in a decade-old mineral rights dispute with the Department of Natural Resources. Court-imposed penalties were accruing each day the legislature demurred.
• The governor has signed a new racketeering law patterned after the federal Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, bringing Michigan into line with 32 other states that have similar laws in force. Public Act 187 (HB 4367) permits law enforcers to seize personal assets and seek imprisonment of and fines against certain lawbreakers charged with financial gain from criminal activity.

Political News

• Following an election day drubbing in his hometown mayoral race, Senate Minority Leader Art Miller (D-Warren) has announced, as expected, that he will serve out the remaining three years of his Senate term but vacate the caucus leadership post, a responsibility he has held for a decade. Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark Steenburgh beat Miller for the mayor’s seat by 3,500 votes.
• A former state Senate aide was named this week as director of external affairs for Gov. John Engler. Margaret Dwyer returns to Michigan from Massachusetts, where she served for five years as an aide to Gov. William Weld. Dwyer will oversee Engler’s constituent services, gubernatorial appointments, and governors’ association matters.
• In House committee shifts, Rep. Greg Pitoniak (D-Taylor) succeeds Nelson Saunders (D-Detroit) as vice chair of the House Insurance Committee, and Rep. Ed Vaughn (D-Detroit) also has been added to the committee. In other committee appointments, relative newcomer Ed Prusi (D-National Mine, elected last May) replaces Vaughn on the Tourism and Recreation Committee.
• Governor Engler made his second international trip in three months last week, visiting Michigan troops in Haiti. Spokespersons continue to disclaim any national political aspirations on the governor’s part.