October 31, 1997

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Details of a potential Durant settlement specifying how and when Michigan public schools will be repaid for the underfunding of special education programs have been trickling from the capitol this week. Legislative approval likely will be sought next week on a compromise said to include (1) an immediate payoff of the 84 school districts party to the suit and (2) bonding to generate revenue to pay the remaining districts. Such a plan combines elements of two partisan approaches that so have far resisted consensus resolution.
• State senators continue debate this week on Michigan’s so-called drug lifer law, which mandates a life sentence without parole for those convicted of possessing 650 grams or more of narcotics. The state’s notoriously tough law was intended to lock up drug kingpins, but even the measure’s former supporters concede that the objective has not been met. Instead, judges have no choice but to sentence first-time offenders to penalties more severe than those required for many violent crimes. Under SB 280, those convicted will be eligible for parole after 15 years if certain conditions were met.
• Opponents to tougher seat belt laws finally buckled: A 63–44 House vote makes failure to wear the harness a primary offense. Under terms of HB 4280, police may stop motorists suspected of not wearing seat belts and issue a $25 ticket. Belt use already is mandatory in Michigan, but drivers may be ticketed for noncompliance only if they have been stopped for another infraction. Although applauded as a lifesaver by supporters, the bill earlier was twice defeated in the House. Opponents decry giving police increased powers, saying it smacks of government intrusion and invites harassment of minority drivers. The legislation provides for one warning before a fine is levied and does not add points to one’s driving record. If passed by the Senate and then signed by the governor, this bill will make Michigan the 13th state where failure to wear a seat belt is a primary traffic offense.
• Motorists won’t be stuck in line in Secretary of State Candice Miller’s offices. Phone-in license plate renewal begins this weekend for the approximately 50 percent of Michigan drivers whose insurers are set up to provide computerized verification to the state. Miller estimates that half the people in line in Secretary of State branch offices are there to renew vehicle registrations—a chore that can now be accomplished from home or work in about four minutes if one has a credit card, a touch-tone phone, and a participating insurance company.
• Confirmed government watchers enjoyed their first full week of MGTV cablecasts this week. Founded and funded by the state’s cable television industry, Michigan Government Television’s recently negotiated agreements with the House and Senate give Michiganians live session coverage.
• Governor Engler has added big bucks to the state’s tourism slogan, "Great Lakes. Great Times." At the Grand Rapids tourism conference this week, the governor announced that an additional $2.3 million in the tourism budget will fund a ten-point plan to make Michigan the top Great Lakes travel destination. Current marketing in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Minneapolis will be expanded to Ontario, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee.
• AIDS deaths in Michigan dropped 36 percent last year, and AIDS fell from the number one to number two cause of death among African-American male residents aged 25–44. In releasing the Michigan Department of Community Health statistics, a spokeswoman from the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project observed that one implication of the statistic is that the number of people living with HIV infection and AIDS is increasing. Nationally, there was a 26 percent reduction in AIDS deaths for the same period.
• That crash you heard wasn’t the stock market. Michigan’s official holiday tree was felled Thursday in Gladstone by volunteers from the Michigan Timbermen’s Association. The big blue spruce arrives on the capitol building’s front lawn this weekend.