April 16, 1999

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• "Back with a vengeance" could well be the motto of returning lawmakers, according to many pundits who spent the legislative recess deploring the state of relationships among and between a monolithic GOP majority, a fractious Democratic minority, and a governor with a reputation for getting things to go his way. Strained relations between House Speaker Charles Perricone (R- Kalamazoo Township) and Minority Leader Michael Hanley (D-Saginaw) were obliquely but pointedly referenced by Detroit News columnist George Weeks’s recent observation that "civility is among the casualties of the ugly partisanship that prevails in the House."
• The most infamous evidence of the aforementioned partisanship—disruption by two Democratic Detroit lawmakers of a GOP-chaired Senate Education Committee hearing on the Detroit schools takeover—drew sanctions imposed last week by Speaker Perricone. Reps. Keith Stallworth and Ed Vaughan will lose their travel privileges (thus ending their reimbursement for expenses not directly related to legislative sessions) as well as their right to invite visitors onto the House floor and to appoint pages. Speaker Perricone said the sanctions will be removed immediately if the lawmakers make a public apology.
• As lawmakers returned to the capital, they were met with a Lansing State Journal headline saying "House GOP freshmen discover that Engler casts a long shadow." The paper was suggesting that the governor has quickly corralled the 58 percent of the lower chamber who are newcomers and bent them to his will with the result that they are "rubber-stamping" (the Journal’s term) his tax, welfare, and education reforms. Claiming a bum rap, several GOP first-termers pointed out that their campaign platforms have been in sync with the governor’s policy positions from the beginning. The Detroit Free Press follow-up story was gamely headlined, "Some in GOP will veer from Engler’s agenda."
• This year’s budget process also is attracting legislative pique: Democrats charge that a procedural decision to permit the Senate to originate 12 budget bills, while the House launches only six, gives excessive control to the GOP-dominated upper chamber because conference committee chairs are named from a bill’s originating chamber. Although next year the plan is to reverse the numbers—the lower chamber will launch 12 appropriations bills to the Senate’s six—House Dems are not consoled, and they further charge that appropriations decisions formerly hammered out over days or weeks are being pushed through this year in a few hours.
• With mid-April tax deadlines on residents’ minds, State Treasurer Mark Murray announces that electronic filing of Michigan returns is up 45 percent over last year. The state’s paperless filing rate runs significantly ahead of the national percentage of 30 percent and guarantees these techno-savvy taxpayers a faster refund than those submitting paper returns. If filers in the former group wish, they may have their refund deposited directly into their bank account, and this could happen as quickly as next week (assuming an April 15 filing date). The computer-challenged among us, however, may have to wait until June to see the money—and that’s assuming our hard copy submission is error free.
• A recent state appeals court ruling on corporate use taxes may cost more than $200 million in revenue otherwise available to fund tax cuts for state residents, according to the state treasurer. The Michigan Supreme Court last week refused to hear the appeal of an appellate court ruling that found that the state had overcharged out-of-state companies for Michigan-based operations between 1989 and 1992. The suit, brought by Ameritech, argued that the state wrongly taxed the firm for telephones purchased by Michigan customers. The Engler administration expects other companies to pursue the remedy granted Ameritech and is pressing for remedial legislation clarifying Michigan’s use tax laws.
• With the retirement last week of Lowell Perry, director of the Office of Urban Programs, the number of John Engler’s original 1990 cabinet members still serving drops to four. Perry, who began his executive branch service as Labor Department director, has been replaced by Elroy Sailor, formerly deputy director of the governor’s southeastern office.