Obama forced to negotiate with the devil to keep recovery moving forward

Sometimes it’s not advisable to negotiate with the devil, but President Obama was forced to do just that over the bailout for the rich and the extension of the unemployment benefits.

It was announced yesterday that President Obama struck a deal with Republicans on a two-year extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It’s very hard to negotiate with someone who is only concerned with making you look bad and defeating you, is not interested in governing and is only concerned with protecting the richest 2 percent, but this crappy deal may be the best we can do.

Republicans claim that they care about the budget deficit, but the tax cuts to a group that already controls almost 24 percent of income in this country will add more than $36 billon to the federal budget deficit. It was either the tax break for people who don’t need it, or a tax increase to the middle class that will surely stall the climb out of the Bush recession.

The Bush tax cut was enacted because we had a budget surplus under President Clinton, but the tax cuts that were set to expire at the end of the month not only got rid of the surplus, but it helped create a huge budget deficit. So, Republicans want to give millions more to the rich, but nothing to the middle class.

The debunked argument they use is that if we don’t extend the tax cut to the rich, they, the alleged job creators, will not hire people. However, they are ignoring the fact that corporations are already earning huge, record profits right now with the tax cut.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released last month, so with the tax break and record profits they are not hiring. This is the highest total since records have been kept.

The growing gap between the richest 2 percent and everyone else is turning the United States into a banana republic. In fact, the U.S. now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.
Unemployment benefits are pumped directly back into the economy, as those on unemployment use the money for basic necessities like housing, lights, gas for the car to look for work and food to feed their family. The loss of unemployment benefits will have a disastrous effect on Michigan, but Republicans don’t seem to care. At no time in our history have we refused to extend unemployment benefits when the unemployment rate was this high.

Republicans have demonstrated time after time that they are simply not interested in governing, and their only concern seems to be getting and keeping power; no matter who is hurt. The only people they care about protecting seem to be the richest 2 percent, and they don’t need the help.

Republicans are even refusing to act on something as important as ensuring loose nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of a Middle East terrorist, and they continue to drag their feet on the START treaty on strategic offensive arms.

This is a crappy deal, but how do you negotiate with someone who cares so little about the middle class, the economy and will stop at nothing to make you look bad and defeat you?

The Senate and House Democrats have not signed off on the deal, and frankly, I’m not sure they should. No doubt it’s a crappy deal. But the fact is Republicans don’t care if unemployment benefits are cut off during the Christmas season, and they don’t care if taxes are raised on the middle class.

I can live with this deal. I don’t like it, but I understand how little Republicans care.

Bad news for Republicans: the economy is improving on both the state and the national levels

LANSING -- Republicans on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees appeared angry that economists at the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference on Friday were saying the economy is improving on both the state and the national level.

All the agencies at the conference - the Department of Treasury, the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency and the House Fiscal Agency, as well as the outside economists who testified at the conference - all agreed that the economy had improved and the national economy was slowly coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. But it will be a slow recovery, and Michigan has traditionally felt any recession first and is the last state to recover.

“We are in a self-sustaining recovery,” said Lyle Gramley, an economist of the Potomac Research Group. “ We will see much more handsome job increases, but we will have some assets idle for a while.”

But Michigan will continue to have budget troubles for the next couple of years as the recovery from the Bush recession gets going. The general fund deficit for the current fiscal year is estimated at $340 million.

Treasurer Robert Kleine speaking at his last revenue estimating conference as Treasurer said corporate profits for the top corporations are up 56 percent, according to Standard & Poor's.

“Contrary to what you read in the newspapers, Michigan is participating in the economic recovery,” he said. “The last time we had job growth like this was in 2000.”

Obviously, Michigan is not out of the woods and happy days are not yet here, but this is the first good news at a Revenue Estimating Conference in some time. Kleine said much of the revenue shortfall, and all the economists agreed, that the decreased collections, along with substantially increased refunds from the Michigan Business Tax, were driving down the total of general fund revenues the state could collect for the current year. The state is struggling with a revenue problem, not a spending problem,

“What this means is people are paying less of their income to support state services,” Kleine said. “What that means is we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem.”

George Fulton, Director of the Research Seminar in Quantative Economics at the University of Michigan, said the 286,00 jobs lost in Michigan in 2009 were the most since the 1930s, and one in five auto related jobs were lost.

But he also said the Big 3 is showing the largest increase in sales since 1995, and the job growth the state has seen in the last several months has been quite dramatic. All that good news is bad news for Republicans for the November election, and they did their best to try to cast gloom and doom on the good news.

But all the economists present anticipated that Michigan will finally see job growth in 2011 after a full decade of job losses. In Michigan, after averages of 14.4 percent unemployment in 2009, the unemployment rate should drop to 13.8 percent on average in 2010 and to 12.9 percent in 2011, according to Fulton. The national unemployment rate, which stood at 9.9 percent in April and averaged more than 9 percent in 2009, will stay at roughly that level for 2010 and 2011.

“The economy has stabilized over the last couple of months,” Fulton said. “Where we go from here depends on the strength of the U.S. recovery and the success of the Big 3.

The middle class and poor pay more in taxes than the richest 1 percent in Michigan

It will come as no surprise to most people that the middle class in Michigan pays the most in federal and state taxes, and the richest 1 percent pays the least.

That was conformed by a recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy called “Who Pays? A distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states.” The report says middle income families – those making $15,000 to $32,000 annual pay and on average $23,300 annually – pay 9.9 percent in taxes. The top 1 percent of earners – those earning above $365,000 a year – pay just 6.4 percent.

Even the poorest in the state – those making less than $15,000 annually and on average $8,700 a year – pay 8.9 percent in taxes. To illustrate how regressive and unfair the sales tax is in Michigan, the poorest in the state pay the highest percentage of taxes of any income bracket in sales tax, and that tax is the highest percentage of any tax at 7.2 parent.

That’s why some groups like the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) is urging the sales tax to be extended to services, which are used more frequently by higher-income households.

The MLHS is also advocating a move to a graduated income tax to make the tax structure fairer. Michigan is only one of seven states with a flat income tax. The League is also advocating a review of Michigan’s overly generous tax exempts for pensions and to close loopholes on tax expenditures that no longer serve a useful public purpose as a way to balance the state budget and make the tax structure fairer.

Business leaders back ‘two penny Jenny’ plan

Remember back in 2007 when Gov. Granholm proposed 2-percent sales tax on services as part of a plan to make-up a $3 billon shortfall, and Republicans went berserk and tagged her with the derogatory nickname, “Two-Penny Jenny?”

Well, it turns out she was right, and it was the best thing to do. Does that mean we can expect an apology from Republicans? Not likely.

Since September a group of so-called business leaders that tend to be the Republicans constituency known as “Business Leaders for Michigan” have been shopping around Lansing something known as the “Michigan Turnaround Plan.”

Business Leaders for Michigan is an organization “dedicated to making Michigan a "Top Ten" state for job and economic growth. The organization is composed exclusively of the chairpersons, chief executives or most senior executives of the state’s largest job providers.”

Part of their three-step 2010 Legislative Agenda includes adopting a 5.5 percent sales tax on services, reduce the sales tax we already pay on goods to the same 5.5 percent, eliminate the Michigan Business Tax surcharge (MBT) and reduce MBT gross receipts tax rate from .8 percent to .5 percent.

The Governor released her 2011 Executive Budget today, and one of the proposals is very similar to the CEO plan. This is directly from the press release:

“The proposal, which modernizes the tax structure to more adequately align with a 21st century economy, lowers the existing sales and use tax rates from 6 percent to 5.5 percent, expands the base of the sales and use taxes to include other services, eliminates the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) surcharge over two years, and reduces the gross receipts portion of the MBT over two years.”

That should be easy for the Republicans to get behind, as well as eliminate the “Two-Penny Jenny” references. Somehow, I doubt neither will happen.

The Governor wants the budget passed that takes effect on Oct. 1 done by July 1.

The Business Leaders for Michigan plan has some good stuff, but almost all of it benefits them at the cost of public employees. There is, of course, no sacrifice on their part.

Report confirms the state budget is balanced on the backs of the poor and the disappearing middle class

A recently released study by the non-partisan and non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) confirmed what most people already know: that the poor and middle class pay the freight for government services.

The ITEP released a study yesterday called, “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States” that concluded that by an overwhelming margin, most states tax their middle- and low-income families far more heavily than the wealthy. That can’t be a surprise to anyone, and yet Republicans still try to push the myth that the wealthiest 1 percent still need tax breaks.

“In the coming months, lawmakers across the nation will be forced to make difficult decisions about budget-balancing tax changes—which makes it vital to understand who is hit hardest by state and local taxes right now,” said Matthew Gardner, lead author of the study, in the press release announcing the study results. “The harsh reality is that most states require their poor and middle income taxpayers to pay the most taxes as a share of income.”

The rich, defined as those with average annual incomes of $1.1 million, typically pay about 6.4 percent toward taxes, the study said. While non-elderly residents who make less than $15,000 per year typically pay about 9 percent of their income toward taxes and those who make between $32,000 and $54,000 pay nearly 10 percent, the very rich pay about a third less.

In fact, Michigan was named part of the “Terrible Ten” as one of the states with the most regressive tax systems. We join Washington, Florida, Tennessee, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Alabama. According to the press release, these “Terrible Ten” states ask poor families—those in the bottom 20 of the income scale—to pay almost six times as much of their earnings in taxes as do the wealthy.

The report identifies several factors that make Michigan and these states more regressive than others:
The most regressive states generally either do not levy an income tax, or levy the tax at a flat rate. In fact, Michigan is only one of six states with a flat income tax rate.
These states typically have an especially high reliance on regressive sales and excise taxes.

These states usually do not allow targeted low-income tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit; these tax credits are especially effective in reducing state tax unfairness. Here in Michigan, Republicans want to restore the damaging cuts to education by delaying a scheduled increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Local Republicans not happy with all cuts state budget

Sometimes they just can’t help themselves.

I know lots of Republicans who as individuals are great people, but the Republican in them can’t stop them from engaging in the favorite GOP tactics: scare tactics. Livingston County Republican Sheriff Bob Bezotte is trying to get townships to contract with the sheriff’s department for dedicated police services, and in a letter sent to the township boards in the county he made the claim that the Brighton post of the Michigan State Police may close next year, making response times even longer.

The only problem with that is that it’s just not true, and the Post Commander debunked that lie. The use of scare tactics by even local Republicans is not surprising when you consider the Bush Administration used scare tactics to get every damaging policy they wanted. Not only that, the undersheriff is the chair of the Livingston County Republican Party and supports torture.

Bezotte said budget cuts have reduced the Sheriff's Department by 20 employees since 2005, and he said residents could be waiting six hours to seven hours for a response during busy times, like during a snow storm.

According to the Press & Argus, in his letter to townships, Bezotte said he's currently working on the 2010 budget, "and there is potential for us to lose an additional six employees."

How can anyone be surprised? The all-Republican Livingston County Board of Commissioners is more concerned about being able to allow the county party to post billboards along I-96 bragging that Livingston County has the lowest county taxes in the state.
Bezotte also claims state and county politicians are trying to "fix their budget on the backs of law enforcement." He needs to tell that to the Livingston County delegation in the state Legislature who voted for an all-cuts budget that cut 12 percent from revenue sharing that goes to local governments and refuse to consider any new revenue increases to restore some of those cuts.

I also find it interesting that townships pay the lowest amount of taxes, yet a good share of the population and development is in the townships. Many townships have stepped up and have had their own police departments for years, such as Green Oak and Hamburg.

I live in the City of Howell, and I pay higher taxes for more services. But the police I pay for are responding outside city boundaries into the townships to help the Sheriff’s Department, but the townships refuse to step up.

The most glaring refusal is from Genoa Township that borders both the cities of Brighton and Howell where Republican Supervisor Gary McCririe has refused to provide services. Genoa Township has the bulk of the commercial development and big box retail stores, like Wal-Mart, Meijers, Home Depot, Lowes, Kohls, Elder-Beerman, Staples and Office Depot. I can guarantee that the Sheriff’s Department responds to plenty of retail fraud and shoplifting calls to those locations.

Dueling doctors

Lansing is the site of many protests, rallies and demonstrations as constituents and advocacy groups attempt to lobby and influence lawmakers.

The budget process has spurred plenty of rallies, like the one held on Sept. 24 when doctors and human service advocates descended on Lansing to protest the Department of Community Health budget that cut the reimbursement rate to health care providers for Medicaid by 8 percent. The rate paid to doctors and hospitals that treat poor and low-income patients has been an easy target of cuts, and those providing the care are losing money to the point that they don’t want to see Medicaid patients.

Subscription only Gongwer covered the rally, and doctors, like emergency room doctor James Fox, said the 8 percent cut could crush the state’s health care system and force doctors out of practice and put ERs in jeopardy.

"Another cut to Medicaid would cause a death spiral where people will wait to get care and end up at the hospital where costs for treatment are even higher," Dr. Fox told Gongwer.

Patrick Wardell, CEO of Hurley Medical Center in Flint, told Gongwer that the 8 percent cut would result in a projected loss of about $8 million and potentially a reduction in the quality of critical care such as burn treatment, neonatal care and other specialty areas that 23 surrounding counties depend on the hospital to deliver.

“The hospital can't sustain these cuts without compromising care," said Wardell said, adding that staff would probably be one of the first areas they would trim, since it accounts for up to 75 percent of the facilities' expenses.

So on Oct. 6 the House addressed those concerns and passed House Bill 5386 that enacts the physician Quality Assurance Assessment Program (QAAP) that imposes a 3 percent gross revenues tax on physicians. Revenue collected from doctors would be matched with Federal funds bringing in $2.70 for every $1 the QAAP raises. Using these matching funds, the state would then significantly increase Medicaid reimbursement to doctors, bringing them up to Medicare standards.

Guess what? Doctors - primarily private practice doctors - are against this, and they are predicting the sky will fall if this becomes law, even though doctors who treat Medicaid patients will see significant increases in income.

In fact, the Michigan State Medical Society is sponsoring a rally of its own in Lansing on Tuesday, calling it the “White Coat Rally.” It will coincide with the first Senate committee hearing on the bill, set for 1 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 20 in front the Community Health Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate Hearing Room on the ground floor of the Boji Tower.

The group is making dubious claims that it will push doctors out of Michigan, and asking if other professions would be willing to accept a 3 percent tax on their income. To me, the answer is yes, if I get a 3-6 percent pay raise like they will.

The result is that many providers will not only break even on the tax, they will actually earn more money from the increased reimbursements than they pay out in the tax. And the state has a track record that this works.

This is not a new idea. It is designed to mirror successful programs with hospitals and nursing homes that the state has run for several years. The concept is to assess a category of Medicaid provider, pool the revenue, match that pool with Federal Medicaid funds to create a pool 3-4 times larger, and then redistribute most of that pool back to providers in the form of higher Medicaid reimbursement rates.

The increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate would bring doctors up to the standard Medicare rates. Doctors with a higher percentage of Medicaid patients will make more money.

The plan will encourage physicians to accept more or begin accepting Medicaid patients. This will increase access to care for our poorest citizens and should in time reduce our overall expenditures on health care due to increased primary care visits and decreased emergency room visits.

Not only will it increase income for many physicians, it will also provide an opportunity for the state to continue other vital public health programs. On top of restoring that cut and increasing reimbursements to Medicare levels, we could also restore some spending for mental health services, prevention programs, substance abuse, local public health offices and other vital programs through the Department of Community Health budget.

Livingston County Republicans breach the public trust

As expected, Livingston County’s state Legislative delegation is toeing the Republican line on the budgets cuts that will devastate the state, but the comments of Rep. Bill Rogers, R, Brighton, are becoming screechy.

Just minutes after that the House adjoined on Tuesday after a marathon session that lasted until almost 9 p.m. where a modest revenue increase was approved, Rogers’s staffer sent out a press release blasting the increase.

The House approved a physician Quality Assurance Assessment Program (QAAP) that assesses a 3 percent tax on doctors. Revenue collected from doctors would be matched with Federal funds bringing in $2.70 for every $1 the QAAP raises, and those matching funds would be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement to doctors, bringing them up to Medicare standards. The Department of Community Health budget just approved last month cut the reimbursement rate by 8 percent, putting hospitals in danger of going into bankruptcy and causing some doctors to stop treating Medicaid patients.

But Rogers told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus that the increase is "a stunning breach of the public trust" that would make it harder to live and work in this state. Please.

If you want a stunning breach of public trust, how about telling high school students that if they do well on the MEAP test they will earn the Michigan Promise scholarship, but once they are enrolled in college, we take it away. That is a breach of the public trust.

He then said he was "outraged" by the proposals, which he said were introduced in "the 11th hour under the cover of darkness." He can be outraged all he wants, but the 11th hour charge is what’s really outrageous. The proposal has been around since late July.

According to the article, Rogers and Rep. Cindy Denby, R-Handy Township, both said the proposals broke an agreement between state House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, to balance the budget without raising taxes.

Simply not true. Dillon made the deal without the agreement of this caucus, and they both left out the second half of the agreement: Republicans would support supplemental appropriations bills to restore some of the cuts. Dillon said all along he would look to safeguard K-12 education, college scholarships, local police and fire protection and health care for children and seniors.

Livingston County’s state Legislative delegation spews GOP talking points in response to budget crisis

It was no surprise that Livingston County’s state Legislative delegation is against any new tax revenues to save essential programs, but the comments coming from them are still a little surprising.

The comments from freshman Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, were a little surprising. Rogers is a genuinely good guy in person, but his earlier pretense of being a bipartisan leader went quickly out the window following the budget process last month. Rogers was elected as the co-chair of the Freshman Caucus with the mission to foster friendship and cooperation that would address the problems facing Michigan. They even signed a pledge to cooperate even when they disagree.

Rogers told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on Sunday that it would be better if state government shut down. I’m not sure how putting some 50,000 people out of work would help the budget situation. He then said Gov. Jennifer Granholm “entered the budget debate at the zero hour, and that legislators on both sides of the aisle are enraged.”

That is simply not true. The Legislature Rogers is a member of approves budgets, not the Governor. She sent a recommended budget to the Legislature and they can accept or reject it. She was involved in the negotiations with the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader, but she did not agree with the agreement reached between the two to balance the budget with all cuts. Neither did many in Speaker Andy Dillon’s caucus.

Then he takes a ridiculous shot at the Governor: “Now she gets engaged? Maybe she should go back to Japan," Rogers added, referring to the governor's recent overseas business trip.” Maybe the Republicans should have stayed at the party in Mackinac just three days before the budget deadline.

The Governor has created a lot more jobs on mission trips than Bill Rogers has, and that includes his family business. The auto industry has shed jobs at an unprecedented rate because of the national recession, and the Governor has traveled far and wide with success to diversify the economy and bring new jobs to the state.

The fact is the economy is changing, but our tax structure has not. We are a service economy, yet there is no tax on services. That means every level of government has had to do more with less, yet the demand has increased.

Rogers and the Republicans continue to push the false argument that lower taxes equal economic growth, but we have cut taxes every year in Michigan for the past 15 years. They also buy into the false argument that Michigan is a high tax state. Simply not true.

The conservative Tax Foundation found Michigan has the 17th best business tax climate in the nation, up from 28th in 2006.

Walk with Marty Griffin and volunteers Saturday to take back the Michigan Senate

Rep. Marty Griffin, D-Jackson, is looking for volunteers to march in the annual Harvest Festival Parade that steps off at 10 a.m. Saturday in Parma.

Griffin is running in a special election set for November for the 19th District that represents Calhoun and Jackson counties that was vacated with the election of Sen. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, to the U.S. House last November. This is the first step in taking back the Senate like we did the House in 2006.

The Republicans enjoy a thin 21-16 lead with the vacant seat, and they are pulling out all the stops to win it back. They see it as the first step in keeping control of the Senate in 2010. More people voted for Senate Democrats in 2006, but they gerrymandered the districts so badly, they kept control.

The budget process has shown how important control of the Senate really is. Senate Republicans are pushing an irresponsible budget proposal that mortgages Michigan’s future just so they can stay in power.

The Senate Democrats have presented an alternative budget proposal that still includes some painful cuts, but uses reforms to protect the things that will make our state competitive in the future. The Senate Democrat’s budget proposal would maintain funding for many important programs and looks to other funding sources to soften the cuts to other state programs. But, the Senate majority refuses to even consider it because at least five in the Republican Caucus are running for statewide office next year, and they want to be seen as cutting taxes.

The Republicans are throwing money around in this race like it’s candy, and they are practically paying volunteers. This is from the state party web site:
“For your help and support at these events, the Michigan Republican Party will take care of all transportation to and from events down in the 19th Senate District along with all hotel accommodations.” It doesn’t say if the accommodations are 4-star, but it’s sad that they are so bankrupt of ideas they have to bribe volunteers. When you are out of ideas, spend lots of money.

This is what we are up against, so we need you Saturday, as well as on other days to knock on doors and to phone bank.

The gathering point for Saturday’s parade is the corner of Elizabeth Street and Grove Street in Parma, 49269. You can RSVP by calling (810) 623-3198 or visit the Facebook page. The campaign is trying to set up car pools for the parade.

Proposed budget will kill any chance at economic recovery and mortgage the future

LANSING – Diverse groups from the Michigan Municipal League (MML) to the Michigan Association of School Administrators expressed shock that House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford, agreed to use the all cuts budget proposed by Senate Republicans as targets for balancing the 2010 budget.

Dillon is siding with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, in using all cuts to make up the $2.8 billon deficit in the state budget that must be in place by Oct. 1. The only thing that appears to be certain in the fluid budget situation is that there will be a continuation budget. Part of the alleged deal between Bishop and Dillon is an agreement to include new revenue that will allow the Legislature to restore some spending cuts in a supplemental appropriations bill down the road. But the problem is that Bishop has been running for Attorney General for the past year and there is no incentive for Bishop to even allow his caucus to take up any new revenue bills down the road.

The budget cuts passed by the Senate Republicans will devastate the state, and they include eliminating the state’s 78 Child and Adolescent Health Center (CAHC) Programs, a $110 cut in the per student in the foundation grant, eliminated School Readiness grants, completely eliminated Early Childhood funding, eliminated vocational and adult education, eliminated the Michigan Promise Grant scholarship, huge cuts to the Healthy Michigan Fund, cut 8 percent to Medicaid providers and a 12 percent cut to local government revenue sharing.

The good news is Senate Republicans are balking at the cuts that will hurt Michigan’s future and economic recovery.

Senate Democrats offered concrete suggestions on Thursday for resolving the crisis, while avoiding cuts that would eliminate any chance for a long-term economic recovery.

“For anyone to imply that the only way to fix our budget is through cuts alone or general tax increases alone is baloney,” said Senate Democratic Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming. “Our alternatives present a compromise approach that still includes some painful cuts, but uses reforms to protect the things that will make our state competitive in the future. These options should at least be on the table as we hammer out a final budget deal in the coming days.”

Senate Democrats have consistently defended several key priorities that are important investments in making our communities safe and our workforce attractive to new businesses, including: Early childhood and public education programs, so that our young people enter school ready to learn; Promise scholarships that help our students afford a higher education and secure good-paying jobs; Local revenue sharing that provides police officers and firefighters to watch over our loved ones; and Health care programs that keep people from seeking more expensive care down the road that we all end up paying for.

The caucus acknowledged that difficult cuts in other areas of the budget may have to be considered, but they have identified a number of reasonable funding sources that would allow Michigan to restore these key investments. These funding alternatives include:

Ending Michigan’s status as a donor state. Assessing just a 2 percent fee on physicians, like we do with hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers, allows us to secure a 3 to 1 match from the federal government. This is an idea that even members of the Senate Republican majority have supported in the past and it could provide more than $300 million. By ignoring reforms adopted by other states, we are allowing Washington to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars to states like California, Texas and Alaska instead of Michigan.

Asking multi-millionaires to pay their fair share. Decoupling from the federal government on estate taxes for estates more than $2 million, like a number of other states have done, would allow us to collect at least $130 million to avoid these painful cuts. A majority of other states, including all of our neighbors in the Midwest, already have some type of system to require this.

Reducing tax expenditures. By temporarily scaling back the more than $36 billion in tax credits the state hands out every year; we can avoid wiping out important services.

Limiting tax loopholes. We currently give millions of dollars in breaks to oil and gas companies, insurance companies, and others, while some are advocating for the complete elimination of programs that help our kids. Those aren’t the right priorities for Michigan.

“Now, there may be those who accuse us of being obstructionist or not going along to get along. Well, this caucus has been around long enough to recognize when short-term political considerations are sending us over a cliff, and we won’t let it happen on our watch,” Prusi said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to restore these priorities, and if others in this town are hell bent on making these kinds of mistakes, they’ll have to do it without our help. And anyone who suggests that there’s no time to consider these options should commit to skipping their Republican leadership meeting up north next weekend to stay here and do this right.”

State employees are overworked and underpaid

LANSING -- Michigan State University economics Professor Charles Ballard dispelled the myths that the public employee system in Michigan is bloated and that state workers are overpaid and have Cadillac health care benefits.

Ballard recently conducted a comprehensive study on the wages and benefits of state employees on behalf of the unions representing state employees, and he testified on Tuesday before the 13-member House Public Employee Health Care Reform Committee assigned to examine House Speaker Andy Dillon’s, D-Redford, plan to pool all public employees in state, including public school teachers. Dillon claims it will save the state up to $900 million a year.

The first myth he dispelled is that the system is bloated. The fact is state employees are dong more with less.

“We have a reduction of 11,000 workers, which is a reduction of 18 percent since 2001,” Ballard said.

Ballard earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and he has been on the faculty at MSU since 1983. He has served as a consultant with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health & Human Services, Treasury and with research institutes in Australia, Denmark, and Finland. He is the author of two books, “Michigan at the Millennium” and “Michigan’s Economic Future.”

Ballard said state employees earn less than those in the private sector, especially those state workers with advanced degrees.

“As the skill level goes up, when you are talking about engineers and attorneys, public employees earn significantly less,” he said.

Ballard also dispelled the myth that state workers get Cadillac health care befits. The fact is they pay higher than average costs for their health care benefits. In fact, most state workers and their families have seen their health care costs double in the last couple of years.

“What I emphasize is that they are not as good as they once were,” he said. “They have made significant give backs.”

Ballard, who has spent more than 20 years looking at Michigan’s tax and budget process, said the tax revenue system is outdated. He said raising taxes made headlines in 2007, but the next day taxes were cut that didn’t make headlines.

“Our tax revenue system is broken,” he said. “To try and fix the budget with just spending cuts is irrational and draconian.”

Right-wing think tank continues to attack state workers

I guess sometimes they can’t help themselves.

As you may have heard, respected Michigan State University professor of economics Charles Ballard recently issued a report that said state employees earn less than their private-sector counterparts with comparable educational attainment, on average. Hard working state employees have been blamed for the state’s budget problems the last few years, and it has become very fashionable to attack and bash them. But, the fact is they have been doing more with less for years.

State employees cost taxpayers $3.7 billion less than eight years ago because of wage and benefits cuts, and 11,000 fewer workers. Under big government advocate John Engler – that’s’ sarcasm for some of my critics – we had 61,493 state employees. In 2006 there were only 52,255 employees. That number continues to go down with layoffs, and the Department of Agriculture, for example, recently ended all inspections of pet shops and riding stables, as an example.

But the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus went looking for a reason to bash the report, and it didn’t have to look hard. In a story that appears at the top of the front page above the fold on Thursday, Ballard made the true statement that state employees have made "considerable sacrifices" in recent years to help the state address its ongoing budget challenges.

That did not sit well with Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy for the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center, who said employees in the private sector had made sacrifices too. My question to Mr. LaFaive on a day when all state employees are on an unpaid furlough day: is who said they didn’t make sacrifices?

Here’s the big difference, Mr. LaFaive, no one is bashing private sector employees like they are state workers.

“LaFaive said Ballard's report only takes wages and salary into account, and doesn't include the dollar value of health and other benefits. He said a state worker on average receives $30,000 in non-cash benefits as part of their overall compensation package.”

I can’t imagine what $30,000 in cash benefits he could be talking about. He can’t possibly mean health benefits alone.

If he does, I would compare the cost of health care to that of any private company that has 50,000 employees. It’s a simple fact that the larger the pool the cheaper the cost.

Like every other American, the benefit cost per month for out of pocket, deductibles, co-pays and prescriptions have steadily increased for state employees. In fact, Ballard's study notes that the cost per month for state workers for a family health insurance plan more than doubled what they paid in 2007. In fact, since 2000, premiums for family coverage have increased by 73 percent.

Isn’t time for real health care reform?

Bishop emulates Yogi Berra

LANSING – Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop’s, R-Rochester, actions on the current Michigan budget remind many of the words of a famous philosopher when he said, “It's like deja-vu, all over again.”

Bishop has already been called out by veteran Capitol correspondent Tim Skubick for speaking out of both sides of his mouth and saying one thing to the press and another in the closed-door budget negotiations between the Governor and the Speaker of the House. He loves to play to the press and the public, and he seems to do it the year before the election so Republicans can campaign on it. In 2007 his draconian budget cuts would have cost some 600 state employees their jobs. He has been campaigning for Attorney General from the Senate floor for the past two years.

But he knew in 2007 that House Democrats would have to be the adults and do the right and responsible thing and introduce tax increases to avoid the brief government shutdown we had in 2007. He had hopes to use that to help win back the House in 2008, but it fail miserably because voters saw through the sham.

But he is at it again this year. Last week, according to subscription only Gongwer, Bishop mouthpiece Matt Marsden said the Republican caucus is open to discussing tax changes, but not general tax increases, and that the House would have to act first on any such measure.

Gee, I wonder when we head that before? Of course the House will have to do the responsible thing and again take the heat for Republicans. Somebody has to be the grown up.

House Speaker Andy Dillon. D-Redford, responded without the help of a mouthpiece, saying “They made the same demand in 2007 and also dictated what was acceptable which led to the disastrous Michigan Business Tax surcharge that is hurting businesses across the state. Any budget solution is going to have to be worked in a bipartisan way and both chambers - including the State Senate - are going to have to shoulder responsibility, not just seek ways to avoid them."

Marsden is paid well to be snarky, rude and misleading, and he doesn’t miss a beat; dismissing the comment as “more typical Dillon rhetoric." He said unlike the House, the Senate has passed budget bills that are balanced and that available revenues could support. "We're out there with what our proposal is, like it or not," he said.

The Senate plans to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class, and among the cuts the Senate has approved and are being roundly criticized include cutting Medicaid services, such as chiropractic, adult dental, optometric services and some community mental health funding; eliminated the Alzheimer’s Outreach Program; eliminated the $4.7 million for the state’s 78 Child and Adolescent Health Center (CAHC) Program sites; $18 million in cuts from the Healthy Michigan Fund and a 8 percent cut to Medicaid providers; eliminated the Michigan Promise Scholarship; a $110 cut in the per student foundation grant, eliminated School Readiness grants and Early Childhood funding; and a 12 percent cut to local revenue sharing.

Leadership for Freshman Caucus is lacking

Remember all the fuss last winter when the 46 new Michigan State Representatives took the oath of office because of term limits?

It was one of the largest classes of incoming freshman lawmakers in the history of the Legislature, and this group formed a Freshman Caucus to foster friendship and cooperation that would address the problems facing Michigan. They even signed a pledge to cooperate even when they disagree. Livingston County’s own Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, was elected as the co-chair of the bipartisan caucus.

That pledge appears to be worth no more than the paper it was printed on. Veteran political correspondent Tim Skubick calls out one of the largest caucuses in the House as Michigan faces a budget crisis eerily similar to the budget mess in 2007.

In a column in the online magazine Dome, Skubick says they have failed to assert any influence on the closed-door negotiations between the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. Sen. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, is doing the same thing he did in 2007; telling the press he will not consider a revenue increase, but privately, he says he will support it if the Democrats take the heat again.

"Senator Bishop, it’s time to stop negotiating out of both sides of your mouth. For public consumption you demand that the budget be balanced with cuts and no new taxes, yet quietly behind the scenes you’ve given the green light to your minions to negotiate a possible revenue raising deal with the governor," Skubick wrote.

Skubick also has harsh words for Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, but he cannot question their honesty like he does Bishop.

He also calls out the freshman for the summer work schedule, but I disagree with part of that. He says, “the House has met one time since the first of July. That’s a six-week summer snooze.“ That’s simply not true. The House has met at least five times since July 1, and they have held committee hearings every day. The Senate has met twice and held no committee meetings.

However, Skubick did say there was some hope for the Freshman Caucus; at least the Democrats.

"There is one ray of hope. The bulk of the new Democrats demanded and got a closed-door meeting with two of the senior Democratic leaders, where they complained about the lackadaisical summer work schedule and griped about being left out of the loop on the budget. Major points for that. But the speaker did not attend. Major points off."

Maybe Rogers, a genuinely nice man, can organize a few more frames of bowling.

Senate Republicans play to the rightwing base and ignore important pending legislation

LANSING – If you need to see where the real priorities of the Michigan Senate Republicans are, you just need to be in Lansing Tuesday and take in the meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by right-winger Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland.

The committee will be considering two items: Senate Resolution 17 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 4. Both resolutions “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” I kid you not. With all the work that needs to be done, the Republicans feel the need to take up two non-binding suggestions that are little more than rallying points and fodder for rightwing Republican, Astroturf tea baggers.

The Republican-controlled Senate has met only once in August, nor have they held any committee meetings; other than campaign-like meetings, like the so-called “House Republican Jobs Taskforce” that only wants to meet with business owners. The Democratically-controlled House was holding regular sessions and committee hearings this month until this week when it gave it up waiting for the Conference Committees to send over the budget bills, and they held committee as late as Wednesday.

You will recall that the House and Senate passed different versions of the budget bills for each state department, and the bills were referred to a conference committee where the differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions will be resolved. The problem is that even though the bills were passed in June, the conference committees do not yet have them.

The Governor, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader are in closed door negotiations over the state budget, and they must agree on targets before the bills go to the conference committee. You will recall that the Senate version included draconian cuts while the House version involved a mix of cuts and revenue from federal stimulus funds. Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, has a history of negotiating in bad faith to make Democrats look bad, and we saw the same thing in 2007 when Democrats had to step up to avoid a brief government shutdown.

This development comes on the heels of a new report by the Citizens Research Council (CRC) of Michigan that says local units of government, colleges and schools are forced to make decisions regarding numbers of personnel, contracts, tuition levels, in "an informational vacuum" when their fiscal years begin in advance of legislative appropriation decisions. That's because in Michigan, many locals governments and school districts have July 1 as the start of their fiscal years while the state’s is Oct. 1. The later the budget gets approved, the more difficult it is for them to plan, but Senate Republicans have bigger fish to fry.

The Senate version of the school aid budget had drastic cuts that included a $110 cut in the per student foundation grant, eliminated School Readiness grants, Early Childhood funding and Child and Adolescent Health Centers. Many parents are enrolling their children in pre-school programs as the start of the school year fast approaches, but the programs will not be there if Senate Republicans have their way.

This comes on the heels of a report in the Detroit Free Press that says only 65 percent of children entering kindergarten classrooms this year were ready to learn the curriculum.

But where are the Senate Republicans priorities? Playing to the party base with meaningless crap like the 10th Amendment.

They could be taking up the workplace smoking ban many people have been clamoring for, or take up laws to make voting easier that has bipartisan support and were passed in the House or take up the unemployment bills that will give Michigan families running out of unemployment access to $140 million in federal funds. But where are the Senate Republicans priorities? Playing to the party base with meaningless crap like the 10th Amendment.

The 10th Amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791, and it basically restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.

Now, I’m not a Constitutional law professor and scholar like President Obama, but isn't the role of the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure laws uphold the Constitution? However, general opinion is that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to do more or less anything that is not explicitly prohibited by the first eight amendments.

It is, apparently, rare, for the Supreme Court to take up 10tn Amendment cases. Again, I’m not a Constitutional law professor and scholar, but the Court has only taken up such cases where the federal government compels the states to enforce federal statutes. In just the first time in 55 years, the Supreme Court invalidated a portion of a federal law for violating the Tenth Amendment in 1992 in a case that challenged a portion of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 that provided incentives for states to comply with statutory obligations to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste.

It seems to me that if people have problems with the federal stimulus plan; appeal it to the conservative Supreme Court.

In earlier time in this country, the states used the 10th amendment to justify repressive and immoral policies, including slavery, the ability to seize abolitionist literature from the mail, secede from the union and to send slave-catchers into non-slave state territory to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, all in the name of state’s rights. There was apparently some war fought in 1861-65 over states’ rights and the ability of states to secede from the federal government.

During the 1960's civil rights fight, the 10th Amendment was used because southern states invoked it as a barrier to enforcement of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment gave citizenship to and protected the civil liberties of recently freed slaves, and states’ rights were used to maintain Jim Crow and Segregation.

The 10th Amendment has been fodder for conservatives for more than a decade. The movement got a boost following the Democratic control of Congress and the White House and more traction when federal dictates about how to spend stimulus money raised hackles in places like Texas and South Carolina. It also got a boost with the fake, Astroturf “tea parties.”

I’m sure the Committee room will be packed Tuesday with the same people who say the President is not a U.S. citizen, go to “tea parties” and disrupt townhall meetings put on by Democrats, but I also guarantee that this meeting will be more respectful.

Bishop condones and encourages angry mobs

If there was any doubt that the disruptive, rude and intimidating behavior at townhall meetings is being caused by the lies and scripts provided by rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop just confirmed it.

Bishop appeared on righting talk show host Frank Beckman’s show last week and condoned the angry mobs who have been disrupting and hijacking the townhall meetings of Democratic members of Congress, spurred on the lies and scripts provided by the health insurance lobby, rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans. Bishop went even farther by suggesting the angry mobs go after Gov. Granholm if the solution to the estiamnted $2.8 billon budget shortfall includes any sin tax increases.

With this Bishop involved, you know why budget negotiations are going so slow. The Governor, the Speaker of the House and Bishop are currently in closed door negotiations over the state budget. Part of the negotiations includes a number of rumored proposals to raise revenue to close some of that gap.

It’s obvious that bullying and intimidation is a favorite Bishop tactic. Just last week he officially justified the assault by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, on 72-year-old Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit.

Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer called Bishop out of those tactics, and pointed out that mob mentality and brawling are common themes with Bishop, recalling the brawl he was involved in on Mackinac Island a few years ago.

“We need to be having civil discussions on health care as we move toward reform,” Brewer said. “Condoning this mob behavior is despicable, but then again it’s coming from Mike Bishop, a practitioner of such tactics.”

You may recall that back in 2003 Bishop suffered a concussion, a chipped tooth, a facial cut requiring stitches and a battered nose after Bishop climbed into a horse-drawn taxi and told Aaron Kirk’s companion that she was too good to be with Kirk. Bishop admitted to telling Kirk’s companion, "You ladies ought to think twice about who you go out with at night. Police said that both combatants had been drinking, and that Bishop refused a breath test and that he declined to press charges.

Kirk got a year's probation after his no-contest plea to assault and a guilty plea to possession of marijuana and ecstasy.

This guy wants to be the chief law enforcement officer of Michigan?

All-GOP Board of Commissioners pushing back against Senate Republican unnecessary budget cuts

HOWELL – The rest of the state is finally catching on to the deep, draconian and unnecessary budget cuts Senate Republicans made just before they broke for the two-week summer vacation.

The Senate passed House Bill 4436 that sets the Department of Community Health (DCH) budget on June 24 with only Republican votes. The cuts included some $500 million in general fund cuts as well as $18 million in cuts from the Healthy Michigan Fund. This budget also includes an eight percent cut to Medicaid providers, as well as cuts to community mental health and school health programs. All of the programs save tax money in the long run.

Senate Democrats offered numerous amendments to restore much of the funding that was in the House version, but they all failed along party lines.

Apparently, the all-Republican Livingston County Board of Commissioners is pushing back, and on Monday they passed a resolution with a 7-2 vote opposing the Senate passed version of HB 4436. The bill would consolidate the state's 46 community mental health boards into 18, and the resolution calls that action illegal under the Michigan Mental Health Code.

Mac Miller, Executive Director of Community Mental Health Services of Livingston County, told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus for a story published Wednesday that if the Senate version passes, his department will have to "kick people out" who are currently receiving services.

Miller told the newspaper that it would mean that the fastest growing county in the state would have to merge with another county, likely Washtenaw, and they “would control how Livingston County money is spent or distributed. The department provides emergency services, assessment, health and medication services, client services management, individual and group therapy and several other services to the community. It serves 1,500-2,000 clients annually.”

Livingston County’s state Congressional delegation were at Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting to defend their votes. Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, who voted for the Senate version, tried to defend the cuts by saying cuts had to be made somewhere, ignoring the fact that the House version accomplished that. He also claimed “the state is focused on creating more "efficient" government.”

Veterans Commissioner Jack LaBelle dismissed that claim, saying bigger is not always better.

Apparently, Senate Republicans are gearing up for the 2010 campaign, and the decision to deny help to thousands of mentally ill residents was simply so Senate Republicans can claim they cut spending when they are on the campaign trail.

Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, who voted against the House version, confirmed that, telling the newspaper, it was "good old-fashioned gamesmanship," then criticized the House for passing a bill that added "eight or nine" new programs that will be almost exclusively funded on stimulus money, which will dry up next year. However, he ignores the fact that the House version actually deleted 14 programs.

This is not, however, the final vote on the DCH budget. Because the House and Senate have not agreed on the same funding provisions this bill will be referred to a conference committee where the differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions will be resolved.

GOP using MSP HQ as a false campaign issue

LANSING - The almost complete Michigan State Police headquarters in downtown Lansing has officially become a campaign issue, at least for one Secretary of State candidate, but it is certainly a dead issue.

Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge and Oakland Sheriff Mike Bouchard - a Republican candidate for governor- have made the most hay with their opposition to the HQ, but Sen. Cameron Brown, R-Sturgis, and a GOP candidate for Secretary of State, managed to attached an amendment to the state police budget that was approved on June 18 that kills the money for the lease payment. Senate Bill 253 was approved by a vote of 26-9. Brown, of course, ignored the fact it will cost almost as much to maintain the older HQ as it does to lease a brand new, high-tech HQ.

People are upset of the layoff of 100 state troopers last week, and critics like Brown, Jones and Bouchard are making the claim that a building can’t respond to an emergency like 100 Troopers can. However, the bill does not bring the troopers back, and the House will again have to be the responsible one and do the right thing and live up to the contract it approved and pay for the lease. But Brown has a feather in his cap for the campaign trail.

Brown also completely ignores the history of the project. The HQ was first requested by former GOP Gov. John Engler. The original draft of the project, under Engler, drew initial opposition from State Police and Military and Veterans Affairs officials because the proposal attempted to move some of the emergency management operations into downtown Lansing but did not provide room for the vehicle and other storage needed. It was also too large and luxurious.

After changes were made to make the building smaller, it met the approval of State Police Director Peter Munoz, and Governor Jennifer Granholm requested the building.

The project was then approved on a bi-partisan vote by the Joint Capital Outlay Committee in 2007, as are all state building projects that do not require specific legislation. The committee consists of members from both parties from both the House and Senate.

The lease was then approved by the State Administrative Board. Brown spoke against the building then in 2007, but Munoz said he supports project, as does the State Police Troopers Association.

The State Administrative Board consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Director of the Department of Transportation. The State Administrative Board has general supervisory control over the administrative activities of all state departments and agencies, including, but not limited to, the approval of contracts and leases, oversight of the state capitol outlay process and the settlement of claims against the state.

Brown’s grandstand campaign stunt to bar the lease payments came just one day after Republican Attorney General Mike Cox - also a GOP candidate for Governor - said the state could get out of the contract on the building by not appropriating money for the building. That seems kind of funny considering he is a member of the State Administrative Board that intimately approved the lease.

The project brings the State Police into compliance with a constitutional provision requiring that state departments be headquartered in Lansing and with Governor Jennifer Granholm's executive directive (2003-22) that state offices, where possible, be located in central business districts. Michigan State University wants the building back where the majority of the MSP is currently headquartered.

The GOP claims are becoming increasing screechy and false, and they continue to ignore the facts and try to blame a bipartisan decision on the just Democrats. The official unofficial GOP blog, Wrong Michigan, is trying float the lie that Michigan State University Trustee and MSP HQ developer Joel Ferguson is a Democratic sugar daddy and a close friend of Granholm, but the fact is he also contributes to Republicans. They also continue to push the lie that it was a no-bid contract, but the truth is Ferguson’s company was the only company to submit a bid.

Jones has gone off the rails opposing the project. According to Michigan Messenger, Jones is pushing the lie that the state police are in favor of scrapping the project, and alleged that Munoz was pressured politically to testify that he supported the move into the new headquarters or lose his job. That is a complete lie. Munoz’s support for the project has never wavered.

In addition to the construction jobs that will be lost if the project is killed just months before it is supposed to be complete, what kind of message does it send if after approving a contract and going through all of the proper steps, the state reneges on a contract just to look good for voters?

Even rightwing extremist GOP Sen. Alan Cropsey questioned how it would look for the state to refuse to occupy a building two governors asked for and was approved with bipartisan support.

“I just don’t think it is right to have a building built, and then at the end of that time period, tell the contractor saying, ‘We are sorry, but we are not going to use it now,’” he said. “ I just think that that is wrong, and I think the state ought to hold to what every body knows is supposed to be a State Police headquarters.”

Legislature breaks without addressing public health issue that kills and sickens thousands

LANSING – With the Legislature on a two-week summer break, it seems fitting to look at what did not get done during the marathon session last Thursday that ran to 1 a.m. Friday morning in the Senate.

Although there was a solution out there, 100 Michigan State Troopers will still lose their jobs this week. The House passed a supplemental bill using some restricted funds to save the jobs, but the Senate never took it up. Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, the chair of the MSP Appropriations Sub-Committee, said he had a way to save the jobs.

But my pet peeve and that of thousands of other Michigan residents is the Senate’s failure to take up the workplace smoking ban. The House passed House Bill 4377 in May with bipartisan support, but the Republican controlled Senate refuses to take it up, despite some 70 percent of Michigan residents supporting it.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, does not support a ban, and he has said he will not consider a ban that has exceptions like HB 4377 does. No problem; then take up Senate Bill 114 that has no exceptions so or an amended version of HB 4377 so it can get in a conference committee with time to spare instead of at the last minute like last year.

Here are some important bills they passed that night instead of taking up the workplace smoking ban. HB 4897, a bill to create an exception to a requirement that a hunter wear hunter orange; SB 470, a bill to require a retailer selling beer kegs to attach an ID tag to it; and SB 483, a bill to specify that a person accompanying a licensed hunter on a bear or bobcat hunt does not have to be licensed, as long as he or she does not carry a weapon or own or possess dogs used during the hunt.

Now, these bills are important to someone in Michigan, but nothing personally touches people like deadly secondhand smoke, costs taxpayers more money and has more support than a workplace smoking ban.

Why is the Senate sitting on this important public health issue?