May 23, 1996

Legislative Week in Review

• More than two dozen House Republicans uncharacteristically broke ranks this week to defy the Engler administration’s proposed slashes in adult education funding. A lopsided, 79–26 vote restored full funding ($120 million) for the adult education component of the school aid budget (SB 851). The measure now heads to conference committee. Unlike the House, whose members all face reelection this fall, upper chamber seats are not on the ballot, and observers expect Senate incumbents to hang tough on this issue.
• Tough was the Senate’s byword in concurring with House action on a 12-bill juvenile justice package that expands conditions under which youths can be tried as adults and jailed. The measures now go to the governor, who is expected to sign them, and include the following provisions:
  • Lower to 14 the age at which some offenders may stand trial as adults
  • Expand the list of offenses for which juveniles may automatically be tried as adults, and mandate adult sentences for resulting convictions
  • Broaden judges’ discretion in sentencing juveniles as adults
  • Permit juveniles to appear in lineups and be jailed while awaiting trial.
• The chambers continued action on agency budget appropriations. A longstanding roadblock to passage of the Department of Transportation budget in the House was resolved this week with a 104–1 vote on HB 5582, signaling a major compromise. At issue was local units of governments’ share of federal transportation funding. Locals have been seething over what they claim was gubernatorial hijacking of about 15 percent of their federal funding. The House vote restores the previous funding level. Funding for the new Family Independence Agency was approved by the Senate without debate; HB 5591 totals just under $3 billion, of about one-third is state General Funds (GF). The Department of Military Affairs budget, in HB 5581, withstood a one-percent cut, to just under $85 million ($37.3 million GF). The Education Department budget passed the House, by a 93–6 vote, at just over $800 million ($43.1 million GF). And Higher Education got its best budget in a decade, in the form of a 5-percent overall increase reflected in a $1.5 billion appropriation; SB 850 includes in its language prohibitions from using the funding to pay for employee abortions or medical benefits for same-sex partners. One unsuccessful amendment would have banned payment for employee vasectomies.
• Don’t bet the farm on casino gambling legislation quickly winning its way through the legislature. Separate resolutions (SCRs 274, 276) granting Indian tribes authority to open gaming facilities in New Buffalo and Mackinaw City failed on identical 8–28 votes in the Senate this week. Detroit Democrats are united in their opposition to casinos elsewhere until their city is cut into the action (a resolution permitting a Detroit-area casino failed last week).

Political News

• The Michigan Supreme Court this week took a rosier view of a judge once characterized by Governor Engler as a "lunatic" who obtained his law degree from a "mail-order school." In the latest chapter on the saga of whether Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Giddings should hear a prisoner property-rights lawsuit, the high court ordered Giddings to immediately schedule the case for trial. The ruling reversed an earlier court of appeals’ disqualification, for bias, of the judge.
• Susie Heintz resigned her post as chair of the Michigan Republican Party to run for the 10th Congressional District seat currently held by US Rep. David Bonior (D-Mt.Clemons). Replacing her at GOP headquarters in Lansing is former GOP National Committee member Betsy DeVos. Saying Yes! to Michigan is David Kochel, executive director of the Iowa GOP, who will assume similar duties in Michigan beginning next month.