January 26, 1996

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Michigan lawmakers spent much of the week in committee meetings, with relatively little floor action until Thursday’s vote on the nine-bill renaissance zone package pending before the Senate. Although Governor Engler has been eager to sign the bills, which are the centerpiece of his administration’s urban renewal policy, into law yet this month, House action now is considered unlikely before February. Provisions of the main bill, SB 668, waive state and local taxes for property owners in eight designated areas, five of them urban and three rural. Democratic critics say the bills will create "elitist zones," attracting wealthy businesspeople who wish to relocate into shoddy neighborhoods solely for the tax breaks, without concomitant reinvestment and job growth for local residents. The Democrats favor restrictions mandating that additional employees for relocated businesses be recruited from the local neighborhood. Such an amendment failed in the Senate, where the GOP majority successfully argued that such strictures constitute government micro-management of business.
• The newly appointed head of the Department of Natural Resources is K.L. Cool, director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. A former army tank platoon leader with a self-described "bias toward quick decision making," Kool pledges to transform the DNR into a "consumer-driven, consumer-supported, and—eventually—a consumer-appreciated agency."
• The chair of Congressman Dick Chrysler’s (R-Brighton) reelection campaign minces no words in disparaging Chrysler’s opponent. Former state Sen. Debbie Stabenow "led a deceptive and malicious campaign against my husband, all the while oozing sincerity and smiling sweetly." So says Michigan First Lady and Chrysler campaign leader Michelle Engler, according to Detroit News reports. Following up Mrs. Engler’s remarks, the governor advised, "Debbie better get used to it; she’s going to have Michelle tracking her down."
• Last week was a good one for top state bureaucrats, who got pay raises of up to 11 percent, the first adjustments since 1994. Directors of the six largest state departments have had their annual salaries boosted to $97,000, while eight other agency heads will see their pay hiked to $93,000, from the current level of $87,300. A gubernatorial proposal for 15-percent increases for the department heads was rebuffed by the lame-duck legislature of 1994, which instead authorized the governor to adjust salaries in 1996.
• The National Conference of Democratic Mayors has elected Detroit leader Dennis Archer as president of the 380-member organization. Observes the Detroit Free Press, this "catapults Archer squarely into the national political spotlight, where he joins another Michiganian, Gov. John Engler, who is chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association."
• Can’t live with it, can’t live without it: Thus runs the apparent political wisdom about confidentiality in university presidential searches. The University of Michigan is back in the headlines over its desire to sidestep having to name names early in the process. Critics claim that the university’s use of a screening committee and a search consultant too closely parallels the 1993 closed-door U-M presidential interviews, which the state supreme court subsequently ruled to be in violation of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. The U-M regents have approved a three-phase process for establishing search criteria and identifying five finalists, whose names will be disclosed before final interviews. However, current plans call for the six-month applicant-review process to be conducted out of public view. Meantime, the U-M vice president for research, physicist Homer Neal, has been named interim president. He will serve from June 30, when incumbent James Duderstadt steps down, until a permanent successor is named. Neal expresses adamant lack of interest in candidacy for the full-time post.