June 20, 1997

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Who was it who said you can’t go home again? Most recently it was Gov. John Engler exhorting the legislature to stay in session until the two chambers agree on legislation to fund road repairs and reform the highway maintenance system. Lawmakers are currently straining to meet a tentative summer recess date of July 3.
• Pronouncing its legislative pace well ahead of the House, the Senate took the week off, adjourning until June 24 after passing SB 581, a graduated increase in truck registration fees, and SB 580, another piece of the governor’s "Build Michigan II" program that saves state funds by extending workers’ compensation insurance coverage to private contractors working on state road projects.
• Lawmakers moved transportation funding out of the breakdown lane by passing a Department of Transportation budget containing $200 million in road repair appropriations. SB 174 passed 98-9, with House Democrats reversing their previous position and backing a GOP proposal to reroute $100 million in anticipated surplus state revenues into state, county, and local road projects. Last week, the House approved a measure (SB 225) tapping the state’s "rainy day fund" for $69 million to use for current road improvement projects.
• ’Tis the season for budget blitzes and frayed tempers; the House saw both this week as it contemplated a schedule calling for the approval of seven agency budgets in two session days. Two angry House Republicans were separated by a floor sergeant and hustled into a back room to cool off. According to Gongwer News Service, Minority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Grandville) and Rep. David Jaye (R-Washington) were nose-to-nose in a dispute over a procedural vote.
• Funding for the Family Independence Agency passed the House this week, 70-36, at a level some $14 million above the administration’s recommendation. SB 169 received a $9.5 million infusion for child care programs from the lower chamber, which also added $4 million for job training.
• Picking its way through the thorny thicket of a 19-bill casino regulation package, the House mustered the required three-fourths majority to pass four of the least controversial measures. The bills amend Proposal E, the citizen initiative that provides for three Detroit gaming sites. HB 4666 requires posting of a problem-gambling toll-free hotline number in casinos, HB 4721 clarifies duties of licensees, HB 4732 requires casinos to provide assistance to compulsive gamblers, and HB 4744 exempts Michigan from certain federal provisions barring the transport of gaming devices.
• The state’s newest holiday was created this week as the Governor signed into law PA 28, designating the first Monday after February 4 as Rosa Parks Day.
• The House regained its 58-seat majority with the swearing in of newly elected 22nd District Rep. Raymond Basham (Taylor). Basham, a former city councilman and UAW official, replaces Greg Pitoniak who left the legislature in January to become Taylor’s mayor.
• Michigan’s unemployment rate sank to its lowest level ever last month, marking over two years that the state’s jobless rate has run below the national average. The May unemployment figure of four percent is the lowest recorded since such records were kept, beginning in 1970.
• One reflection of the state’s low unemployment rate is the concomitant swell in home ownership. According to latest HUD statistics, the percentage of Michigan households who were homeowners rose by a full percentage point over last year to 73.3 percent. In Detroit, increases were more dramatic, with home ownership climbing from 53.1 to 58.3 percent.
• "We’ve all been twisting his arms. We think he’s going to do it," reports Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. The twistee in this case is Michigan Gov. John Engler and the "it" is running for a third term. An Associated Press account from Washington this week quoted the state’s chief executive as promising to announce his decision "very soon," which pundits interpret as September.