May 15, 1998

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Tuesday’s filing deadline for next fall’s election cycle revealed some familiar faces and a surprise or two on ballots across the state. For example,
  • term-limited Rep. Glenn Oxender (R-Sturgis) will make a primary run against incumbent Sen. Harry Gast (R-St. Joseph) in the 20th Senate District;
  • term-limited Rep. Mary Lou Parks (D-Detroit) will run against incumbent Sen. Joe Young, Jr. (D-Detroit) in the 1st Senate District;
  • term-limited Rep. Tom Alley (D-West Branch) changed his mind and hopes to challenge incumbent Sen. Joel Gougeon (R-Bay City) in the 34th Senate District;
  • term-limited Rep. Barbara Dobb (R-Commerce Township) will challenge incumbent Sen. Bill Bullard (R-Milford) in a repeat of their 1996 special primary face-off in the 15th Senate District;
  • Maria Carl, notwithstanding her primary loss to Sen. David Jaye (R-Washington Township) in last fall’s raucous special election for her late husband’s 12th Senate District seat, will take Jaye on again in the August primary;
  • former Sen. Henry Stallings has filed to run again for the 3d Senate District seat from which he was pressured to resign earlier this year; and
  • Ken Hylton, Jr.—the attorney who represented Stallings on the felony charge that led to the latter’s resignation—has filed to run in the race for 3d District House seat (Detroit) that Rep. Mary Lou Parks will be vacating.
• Legislative action on agency appropriations continued this week with House approval of two more budgets.
  • On a 58-44 vote, the Family Independence Agency received a $1.074 billion General Fund (GF) spending plan from the lower chamber. HB 5509 contains almost $55 million more than the governor recommended.
  • By a vote of 57-46, lawmakers approved appropriations for the general government budget—a category including the legislature and attorney general’s office as well as the departments of Management and Budget, Civil Rights, Civil Service, Treasury, and State. The roughly $456 million GF total in HB 5595 is a $12 million reduction from the governor’s recommendation and some $16 million less than the current spending level. Most of that difference was cut from Treasury Department debt service.
• Current nationwide controversy over affirmative action legislation was brought home this week by Senate action on two bills limiting the state’s involvement in the procedure. Under SB 610, approved 21-16, bidders on state contracts would no longer be required to have an affirmative action plan in place in order to receive contracts, nor could the state give preference to companies that have such a plan. Under SB 615, which passed 23-14, employers and employment agencies could not use so-called race norming, cut-off scores, or other modifications to employment tests for the purpose of giving one job applicant preference over another.
• Pressure is mounting on House Democrats to vote on a tax cut plan passed handily in the Senate last week. The five-bill Senate package (to cut state taxes by 15 percent over five years beginning in 2000) has been held hostage in the lower chamber while House Dems await upper chamber action on their own tax-cut proposal (which focuses on child-care credits, tax deferments for seniors, and tax credits for families). A likely end to the standoff is a discharge vote in the House, which would compel the Democratic leadership to bring the Senate package out of committee to the chamber floor for a full vote.
• Speaking of matters taxing: The state’s tax burden fell dramatically in recent years, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report. Michigan made the best showing of any Great Lakes state during fiscal years 1993–95, moving from the 15th greatest tax burden to the 13th best. In 1995 Michigan’s average state and local tax burden as a percentage of personal income dipped 6 percent below the national average.