December 8, 1995

Legislative & Political News in Review

• Just before midnight on Tuesday, bleary-eyed House members put to bed the major revision of the Mental Health Code. The lower chamber passed SB 525 by a comfortable margin of 70–31, after debating for nearly eight hours the fate of more than 100 amendments offered, for the most part in vain, by Democrats. The measure dramatically shifts oversight and control of mental health services from the state to county-level Community Mental Health Boards. A key provision of the bill allows local boards to create "authorities," which will have great policy latitude and license to acquire property and generate income. Opponents of the measure decry its failure to hold the authorities accountable (it gives them governmental immunity) and guarantee public scrutiny of their actions (they are not required to open their planning and budget-setting meetings to the public).
• Initially stalled by a key provision in the Senate-passed bill (i.e., raising the extent to which consumers bear the burden of proof), legislation to reform product liability was narrowly approved in the House after Republican leaders persuaded two recalcitrant GOP colleagues to push the green button, and a Democrat (Tom Alley, D-West Branch) also joined the measure’s supporters. Senate Bill 344 passed the House 57-52.
• Hours after signing into law the nation’s first welfare reform plan that anticipates transfer of federal responsibility for the programs to individual states, Gov. John Engler flew to Washington to lobby for speedy congressional approval of the shift. Solid GOP majorities in Lansing pushed the ambitious restructuring into state law a scant five weeks from its introduction. The new measures start with renaming the Department of Social Services—it will become the Family Independence Agency—and move on to requiring, with certain exceptions, welfare recipients to work, perform community service, or attend job training classes 20 hours a week. The bills faced strong opposition; Senate Democrats particularly object to the lack of legislative oversight resulting from the department’s being exempted for 12 months from the Administrative Procedures Act.
• After reviewing presidential candidates "generally advocated" by the national news media, Secretary of State Candice Miller has assembled a preliminary Michigan presidential primary ballot that comprises ten Republicans and President Clinton.
• Michiganians will receive a one-time income tax refund as a result of state revenue having exceeded constitutional limits by about $230 million in FY 1994–95. The governor announced that $113 million will be set aside to provide taxpayers with a 2-percent reduction in their April tax bill, courtesy of the so-called Headlee amendment.
• The nation’s largest conservation group—the 140,000-member Michigan United Conservation Clubs—has lost its dedicated, colorful, and nationally recognized president. Thomas L. Washington died this week from heart disease.
• The search for a new state school superintendent hasn’t formally begun yet, and 17 state senators proposed last week to scrap the effort altogether. Instead, suggests a petition circulated by Sen. Dan DeGrow (R-Port Huron), Art Ellis, the interim school chief, should be named permanently to the vacancy created by the resignation earlier this year of Robert Schiller. Under the terms of his contract, Schiller remains on the Education Department payroll. Ellis continues to hold his position as director of the Commerce Department.
• "A workhorse, not a show horse," is one colleague’s complimentary description of U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham’s favorable reviews in congressional circles. The Detroit News reports that the Auburn Hills Republican is becoming known in Washington "for his smarts and well-considered policy ideas." Michigan delegation news is less positive in the U.S. House, where Rep. Barbara Rose Collins faces an ethics committee investigation concerning possible misuse of funds.

Correction: In a November 10 Public Policy Advisor, University of Michigan Regent Laurence Deitch was incorrectly identified as an incumbent at the time of his 1992 election to the U-M Board.