June 11, 1999

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Amid unseasonably sultry capital temperatures and seasonably long late-night sessions, lawmakers sweated their way toward summer recess this week. At press time, it was uncertain if they could keep to their June 11 target adjournment date, or whether they would need additional session days to complete their spring agenda. Citing battle fatigue among the GOP majority controlling the lower chamber, Gongwer News Service reported that some House members "are questioning the blinding pace [with which] some major bills have been moved through the chamber and are advocating staying in session for another week or two to slow the tempo."
• After a famously fast start, legislation making it easier to carry a concealed weapon (CCW) is now officially off the table, according to a Detroit Free Press account that credits the National Rifle Association with silencing—at least for this season—further debate on the topic. The Freep reports that the powerful gun-rights interest group told Michigan’s CCW backers that the measure is ill timed and likely would lead to an expensive and unsuccessful ballot proposal. Without the NRA’s support, the measure is—in the words of one state legislator—a dead issue.
• Earlier murmurs of a trade war with Canada were laid to rest in a Senate committee this week as compromise language was forged to clarify effects of the proposed repeal of the state’s single business tax (SBT). As passed last week by the House, HB 4745 raised the hackles of the country’s northern neighbor because Canadian firms with Michigan offices faced paying taxes on revenue generated in Canada. The Senate Finance Committee acted to clarify the bill’s language, stipulating that only income earned in Michigan will be subject to the SBT. The controversial levy will be phased out over more than two decades at a rate of 0.1 percent annually.
• Governor Engler’s plan to fund a Michigan Merit Scholarship program from the state’s multi-million dollar tobacco settlement was endorsed in the Senate this week by a 33-5 vote for passage of HB 4666. Over Democrats’ objections that more of the funds should be used for tobacco-related health care, the robust GOP majority gave the governor his way on a comprehensive plan to reward state students who score well on the Michigan Educational Assessment Profile (MEAP) tests. An estimated $86 million will fund $2,500 scholarships for qualifying pupils. To qualify, high schoolers in their final two years will need to score competitively in the reading, writing, math, and science portions of the MEAP tests or—alternatively—qualify in two of those areas and score in the top quartile on a nationally recognized college entrance exam such as the SAT or ACT.
• In action criticized by opponents as disenfranchising students in college towns, the House this week passed a bill requiring a resident’s voting address to match that on his/her driver’s license. SB 306, passed 56-48 after heated debate, will require the Secretary of State to coordinate all change-of-address requests for a driver’s license with the state’s new qualified-voter file, to ensure that the information matches. Students thus will be required to vote where they claim residence—often their parents’ address—rather than the town where they attend college. Some Democrats contend that the bill aims to influence next year’s 8th Congressional District election; the district includes East Lansing, where large numbers of historically Democrat-voting college students may be precluded from voting there in a race thought likely to include the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Brighton).
• Gov. Engler has named the final two members to the Detroit School Accountability Board, the group charged with receiving reform recommendations from the oversight body named earlier to assume leadership for the city’s public education system. Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Eastern Michigan University President John Porter and Detroit City Council President Gill Hill have been named to the accountability board.