June 5, 1998

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• A $2.8 billion Department of Transportation budget rolled through the Senate this week amid predictable partisan bickering about how much money should be made available for local road projects. House Bill 5594 passed 34-3 after an unsuccessful Democratic attempt to channel an additional $90 million in federal highway funds to the local government allocation. The transportation appropriation includes both state and federal dollars and exceeds current year spending by $400 million.
• Since roughly 1930 the state has been sharing some tax revenue with local government. For years, the distribution formula favored cities, but local revenue sharing is being restructured by legislature, and the west side of the state would prefer that much greater weight be given to population (which is growing out state and diminishing in most major cities). Senate Bill 1181 would base a locality’s portion of state shared revenues on per capita taxable value, population, type of government, and millage equalization yield. According to Gongwer News Service, the bill likely will pass the GOP "sunset"–side controlled Senate but founder in the Democrat-dominated House. While Detroit loses revenue sharing under this scheme—as it would under most proposed alternatives—it loses less, say SB 1181 supporters, than if funds were apportioned strictly per capita. The source of revenue sharing funds is the sales tax.
• Give Proposal A an A-plus: Public Sector Consultants has run the numbers on tax assessment data released by the State Tax Commission and concludes that Michigan property owners saved an estimated $860 million this year on individual tax assessments as a result of the assessment cap imposed by Proposal A. The official state report won’t be released for about a month.
• The House passed legislation upping health maintenance organization accountability by a 61-45 vote this week. House Bill 5221 would hold an HMO legally liable for any injury resulting from its denial of a physician’s treatment recommendation. A party-line vote overturned GOP efforts to limit HMO liability in such cases. Critics of the current process contend that medical treatment decisions routinely are made by clerical workers who often override physicians’ recommendations in the interest of cost savings. The bill would not cap liability, however, and opponents predict that this would generate a rash of lawsuits, boost health insurance rates, and make health care coverage harder for many people to afford or obtain.
• Traffic fatalities caused by drunk drivers will lead to more life prison terms being meted out. A Michigan Supreme Court decision handed down this week reinstates second-degree murder charges against intoxicated drivers in three separate cases in which four people died. A 4-3 court majority holds that a murder conviction—which carries a sentence of up to life—is warranted in cases where "wanton misconduct" is proved. The ruling overturns lower court decisions reducing the sentence to manslaughter, which carries a maximum term of 25 years’ imprisonment.
• A controversial pair of bills claiming to protect the unborn by penalizing assaults on pregnant women passed the House last week. Called the Prenatal Protection Act, the measures would criminalize injuring or killing a human fetus by assaulting the mother. Under SB 21, someone charged with causing the death of a fetus (by such means as drunk driving or personal assault, for example) could face a felony conviction of up to 25 years. The companion bill, HB 4224, would permit civil suits in such cases. Supporters observe that in no case would the bills apply to action willfully taken by the mother of the fetus, although some critics contend that language in the bills characterizing a fetus as "an unborn individual" poses a potential threat to women’s reproductive rights.
• Governing magazine includes John Engler on its list of the six best governors for the 1990s. Longest equals strongest in the magazine’s view: The three Republicans and three Dems cited include current and former chiefs of Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, Tennessee, and Georgia, and all had been elected to public office by age 30. Engler’s initial election at 22 makes him the most precocious of the group.