March 21, 1997

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Natural resources issues dealt with by the House this week include passage of a requirement (HB 4206) that the state issue more stringent fish consumption advisories in line with those of other Great Lakes states and advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Engler administration officials contend that the state’s current fish advisories are adequate and that attempts to change them are grounded in politics, not science. The lower chamber also approved legislation (SB 93) to undo a mistake—failure to specify immediate effect—in drafting a subdivision control bill that had passed during the frenzied final day of last session. The fix-up measure reduces the time frame that landowners have to subdivide their property before the bill’s regulation takes effect.
• Hoping to ease the financial burden on families of college-bound students, House members voted 94–13 to double the current tuition tax credit, from $250 to $500. Students enrolled in certified vocational education entities also will be eligible for the tax break. The measure (HB 4191) removes from current law the requirement that the credit may be applied only to higher education institutions holding tuition increases to a level not exceeding the average annual increase in the consumer price index.
• "A scandalous display of government arrogance or indifference" is how Richard Headlee describes the implementation of the eponymic tax-limiting amendment to the state constitution. In testimony this week before the House Tax Policy Committee, Headlee chastised state officials for not fully enforcing the voter-approved initiative that limits Michigan taxes and prohibits the legislature from imposing unfunded mandates on local units of government. The tax committee chair, Rep. Kirk Profit (D-Ypsilanti), is preparing legislation to induce greater compliance with the 1978 amendment’s objectives.
• Measures to provide drivers with relief from crumbling roadways without having to endure a gasoline tax hike were passed by the Senate this week. The four bills are SB 303, to achieve greater transportation-related efficiencies and provide additional funding for highway renovation; SB 225, to capture for surface road repair the interest (approximately $69 million) from the state’s "rainy day fund"; SB 302, to provide some $70 million, in large part by shifting $50 million from Michigan’s Comprehensive Transportation Fund—a mass-transit funding source—to the Michigan Transportation Fund, for road work this year; and SB 174, the overall transportation budget bill authorizing expenditures of more than $2.2 billion.
• The 1997–98 Department of Agriculture budget bill (SB 164) emerged from the Senate by a 26–14 margin. The $73 million proposal was adopted after Democrats failed to gain approval of an amendment requiring disclosure of all department personal-services contracts of more than $5,000.
• The controversy is heating up over Romulus School District’s public school academy in Detroit that caters to dropouts. An attorney for the Detroit Public Schools alleged before the House Judiciary Committee this week that the Romulus-run, Detroit-based Baron’s Academy has defrauded the state of millions of dollars and that its instruction and discipline are "abysmal." GOP members of the panel expressed anger at the last-minute scheduling of the matter and the fact that representatives from Romulus and the academy had not been invited to the hearing. An investigation of the fraud allegations is underway by the attorney general’s office.
• A unanimous Michigan Appeals Court panel has upheld a state law requiring that women considering an abortion must review written information about the procedure and wait 24 hours before proceeding.
• Michigan’s current seasonally adjusted unemployment rate—4.5 percent— is at its lowest level in 27 years.
• The House has recessed for its annual spring break; it will reconvene on Tuesday, April 8.

CORRECTION: In the March 14 Roundup, we erred in reporting changes in the Senate Appropriations Committee membership: Mike O’Brien is temporarily replacing Joe Young on the panel—not the reverse. Both are Democrats from Detroit.