July 11, 1997

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• That’s not heat lightning over the Capitol Building; lawmakers are burning the midsummer midnight oil in an effort—unsuccessful, so far—to reach and keep agreements on transportation funding. Failing a pre-Fourth target for summer recess, legislators returned for what was billed as a brisk, one-day cleanup session this week. It didn’t happen that way, with both consensus and focus eluding the chambers; the solons spent idle hours awaiting new compromises for their consideration. Deliberations will continue next week.
• The GOP-controlled Senate took a detour around an earlier, bipartisan transportation funding proposal in a late-night vote hiking the gasoline tax. HB 4872 passed by a hairsbreadth, 20–16, reflecting two Republican defections and one Democratic crossover. The measure generates $262 million annually in new revenue, which will be used to improve state roads, relying chiefly on a four-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax hike, effective August 1. This tax increase will be offset in the Senate Republican plan by a four-year phaseout of four cents of the current sales tax on gasoline.
• The Associated Press describes the legislative pace to agreement on 1997–98 agency budgets as "tiptoeing." Final spending totals are yet unresolved—a handful of budgets still require conference committee concurrence votes.
• While final agreement on road funding remains rocky, public school funding looked rosier this week. House and Senate conferees reached final agreement on a budget adding more than $6 billion to current spending levels. After weeks of negotiations, consensus occurred on HB 4310, resulting in a total school aid budget of $9.15 billion. Adult education funds will remain at the current level; efforts of House Democrats to substantially boost them were unsuccessful.
• Conference committee agreement on the school aid budget signaled the demise—for this session at least—of a controversial school takeover proposal. In his State of the State address, Gov. John Engler had called his top education priority a new initiative whereby the state would intervene in school districts with remarkably and demonstratively poor performance, replacing local administrators with state-appointed receivers. Opponents of the measure succeeded in progressively weakening it, and a much-diminished version disappeared altogether in final negotiations this week.
• More news for schools: The governor is expected to sign a bill making Michigan schools eligible for up to $2.25 million in telecommunications services discounts. SB 637 enables Michigan institutions to participate in a federal program offering low-cost Internet connections, among other services.
• Southeast Michigan will be designated a major disaster area if President Clinton approves Governor Engler’s request. Recent thunderstorms and tornados cost Michigan more than $31 million and 16 lives.
• This week’s Wall Street Journal advertises a vaccine laboratory for purchase by interested investors. Michigan readers may recognize the facility as the state’s Biologic Products Institute, which is being privatized by the Engler administration. Solicitations to take over the facility also have been sent to current customers and other vaccine makers.
• Still regretting that unflattering driver’s license photo? Cheer up: Polaroid Corp. has snagged an $8 million contract to help Michigan revamp its driver’s licenses and ID cards; clearer, sharper photo images are expected by next spring.
• The Crime Victims Services Commission has a new home and new federal funds, the governor announced this week. The commission, which replaces the Crime Victims Compensation Board and is given expanded responsibility, moves by executive order from the Department of Management and Budget to the Department of Community Health, where it is eligible to receive nearly $14 million in federal grant funds over three years.