March 8, 1996

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• The Senate Republican caucus, led by Sen. Dan DeGrow (R-Port Huron), has unveiled a proposal to add an additional $156 million to the K–12 school aid budget. This initiative would raise the basic K–12 foundation grant from $5,266 per pupil to $5,345—a 3.7 percent increase over the current year’s grant. DeGrow also proposes a one-time technology grant of $20 per pupil to facilitate purchasing classroom telecommunication equipment. The move runs counter to Governor Engler’s proposed budget, which calls for only a 2.2 percent increase for the 1996–97 school year. Department of Management and Budget Director, Mark Murray, panned the plan, stating that he believes it to be based on faulty economic assumptions. The senators claim that they can pay for the boost by capturing $80 million from a planned multistate lottery game, a projected $18 surplus in this year’s School Aid Fund, and by assuming that a federal capital gains tax cut will not happen, yielding another $58 million.
• Where there is smoke, there is smuggling. Michigan’s second-highest-in-the-nation cigarette tax (75 cents per pack), combined with woefully inadequate enforcement tools, could be costing the state more than $100 million annually, according to a Senate subcommittee report. (Note: Public Sector Consultants’ research leads us to believe the loss to smuggling much less.) The report recommends that Michigan join 44 other states in establishing a cigarette tax-stamp program, impose tougher sanctions on convicted smugglers, and beef up enforcement activities to help curtail the illicit trade.
• The Senate was active this week on other cigarette fronts; it rejected the lower chamber’s recent addition of a local preemption provision to SB 730—legislation that seeks to toughen the penalties on retail clerks who knowingly sell cigarettes to minors. The preemption provision would allow local communities to enact their own—usually more stringent—criteria for dealing with tobacco-sales regulation. The bill has been sent to a conference committee for final resolution.
• In the past few months the two legislative chambers have taken differing approaches on the Michigan speed limit issue: The Senate has passed SB 80, raising the speed limit to 70; the House has approved HB 5123, capping it at 65 mph. Hoping to help remove roadblocks to a decision, Governor Engler has endorsed a compromise plan calling for establishment of several 70-mile-per-hour "trial zones" on northern Michigan freeways. Location of the proposed test zones would be determined by recommendations from the head of the Department of Transportation and the State Police, and they would be kept in force long enough—perhaps through the summer of 1996—for transportation safety studies to be completed. The governor also has called for passage of HB 5000, which would make failure to wear a seat belt a primary traffic offense.
• Speculation about the future legislative career plans continues to swirl through the halls of the Capitol Building. The Lansing State Journal Wednesday reported that House Speaker Paul Hillegonds will not seek reelection in November. The nine-term lawmaker quickly denied the story, but he did acknowledge that he recently has discussed his political future with legislative colleagues—leading , he suspects, to the increased amount of conjecture. Hillegonds has vowed to make clear his intentions by the end of March. Three other House members did, however, announce plans to leave the lower chamber at the end of their terms. Jan Dolan (R-Farmington Hills) and Carl Gnodtke (R-Sawyer) both cite the need to begin spending more time with their families. Tracy Yokich (D-St. Clair Shores) will step down in favor of running for an open district court judgeship in her hometown.