June 4, 1999

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• About as quickly as you can say, "Let’s repeal the single business tax," House lawmakers delivered on Gov. John Engler’s day-old suggestion to use projected surplus revenue to phase out the controversial 2.3 percent levy on Michigan businesses. Four Democrats joined a solid GOP caucus in passing HB 4745 by 61-45; a similarly prompt Senate action is expected to send the measure to Engler before the legislature’s scheduled summer recess June 10. The tax currently generates about one-third of the state’s General Fund revenue, after income and sales taxes. Republicans have never favored the single business tax (SBT), claiming it is too complicated to administer and inherently unfair to businesses. Democratic detractors of the bill deride not only the breathtaking speed of the measure’s approval—a scant 24 hours after the governor expressed his desire to have the legislation on his desk—but also the slow pace of the actual phaseout of the SBT: Cuts of .01 percent will be made annually for ten years, with the tax disappearing in 2022, ultimately eliminating $2.7 billion in revenue (current dollars). The bill calls for the phased trimming to stop if the state’s "rainy day" fund (now a flush $1.2 billion) slips below $250 million. House Dems are smarting over their failure to persuade the chamber to seriously consider their proposal to dispose of the state’s surplus: a $50-per-resident tax rebate, which refunds the surplus to taxpayers.
• The governor’s long public service was officially recognized this week by the Legislative Retirement Board, which approved payment of a $76,500 annual pension for the sitting chief executive. Engler became eligible for the benefit—accrued during his 20 years’ service as a legislator—on his 50th birthday last October. The payments began in March and augment Engler’s $138,757 yearly gubernatorial salary, which was boosted 9 percent earlier this year and carries its own separate pension. Engler’s entitlement to the two benefit plans is undisputed, although one observer opined to the Lansing State Journal that it was politically astute of the governor to defer receiving the payment until after last fall’s elections.
• "Politics is always about timing," Rep. Mike Green (R-Mayville) told the Detroit Free Press, explaining why the carrying concealed weapons (CCW) legislation that he introduced, which although it was supported by large House and Senate majorities in recent weeks, likely will not be completed before lawmakers leave town for summer break. This week, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Detroit) became the latest and highest-placed official to call on Governor Engler to veto the CCW package. The senator added his voice to an increasingly broad, Democrat-dominated coalition seeking a statewide referendum on the controversial legislation next fall.
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Arthur Ellis has resigned from the Detroit Public Schools Reform Board and named the state treasurer, Mark Murray, to succeed him. Legislation setting up the oversight panel charged with revamping Detroit’s schools had stipulated Ellis’s inclusion (as the only member not appointed by Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer) and also gave Ellis the right to name his replacement. Ellis cited schedule problems as prompting his departure and said Murray’s budgeting and expediting skills are fitted to the board’s most pressing needs.
• Two bills banning so-called partial birth abortions passed the House Criminal Law and Corrections Committee this week. SB 456 and HB 4656 were approved by the committee on a 6-2 vote, with one Democrat voting in favor and two opposed, and two Republicans not voting. Under either measure, it would be illegal to intentionally abort a human fetus once it has begun emerging from the mother’s body. Similar legislation was struck down in a 1996 Michigan court case.