Capitol newsletter lists top Legislative accomplishments of the decade

With the end of the decade just three days away, reporters and writers are reflecting on both end of the year and end of the decade with the best of stories and lists. Subscription only Gongwer has put together a list of the most significant laws passed in the Michigan Legislature in the past decade.

My number one is the workplace smoking ban, but it was just number three on their list. Ironically, the Michigan Legislature finally passed a workplace smoking ban that includes bars and restaurants earlier this month after a fight that took the entire decade.

No. 10 – was raising the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.40 an hour in 2006. Despite Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, Gov. Jennifer Granholm managed to get it done. It was accomplished by attempt to go around the Legislature. Democrats launched a petition drive, and when Republicans saw how successful it was, they went ahead and approved it in the Legislature.

No. 9 – was the groundwater withdraw package of bills to regulate withdrawals of Michigan's groundwater. “In 2006, the first regulations and permits were imposed. Then in 2008, the state went further with the Great Lakes Compact and significantly toughened those rules. Much of the debate surrounded the groundwater withdrawals of the Nestle water bottling plant in Mecosta County.”

No. 8 – was the energy reform package of 2008. It also reversed a legislative decision in 2000 to provide customer choice and instead capped that at 10 percent of the load for Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison to give them the demand stability they said they needed to be able to finance new power plants in the state. But the most important thing it did was create a Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). It required the utility companies to provide least 10 percent of its power by a renewable power source by 2015. It doesn’t go nearly far enough, but it’s a start.

No. 7 – Was the mandatory minimum sentencing laws repealed in 2002. “ Michigan's tough anti-drug laws, especially its mandatory life sentence without parole for anyone trying to deliver 650 grams of cocaine or heroin, earned infamy in the pages of Rolling Stone, which profiled the case of Gary Fannon, who was serving a life sentence under the so-called 650 Lifer Law.” Even with that, Michigan’s incarceration rates were the 2nd highest in the 12-state Midwest region, and our rate is the 11th highest in the nation, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

No. 6 – was the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. It was a low point in Michigan when we put discrimination into the Constitution. It was led by the state’s and nations’ leading anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association (AFA) of Michigan.
No. 5 – was the law passed in the lame duck session that made Michigan a “shall issue” state for concealed weapons. It was my introduction to how strident the pro-gun people really are. Not a word about it was spoken during the 2000 election season, but it was passed in the lame duck legislative session in December of 2000.

No. 4 – was the affirmative action ban in 2006. Some of the same people that were behind the same sex marriage ban were behind this ballot question that bans affirmative action programs based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin. Even though there was widespread evidence of fraud in collecting the signatures, this was allowed to stand.

No. 2 – was the "Race to the Top” education reform legislation passed just two weeks ago. The package of bills seeks to position the state to compete for up to $400 million in federal funds through President Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" program that requires states to enact major education reforms to receive the funds. Among the things the bills would do is to expand the number of charter schools by allowing current charter school operators to open new charter schools, provide a path for alternative teacher certification and stipulates that districts with at least 25 percent of their students in the lowest achieving 5 percent of buildings in the state would be run by a CEO appointed by the state superintendent.

The top measure of the decade – according to Gongwer – was the replacement of the Single Business Tax (SBT) with the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) in 2007. The Republicans killed the SBT in the summer of 2006 with no replacement in sight as a campaign gimmick because they knew the Republican scandals would hurt them. It did, and they lost control of the Michigan House.

Ambassador Bridge Company hires political consultant to run recall against critic

It’s a simple fact of life that most rich people do not like being told no and certainly are not accustomed to hearing that word. Grosse Pointe billionaire, Ambassador Bridge owner and Republican benefactor Matty Moroun is a perfect example of that.

One person who has stood up to Moroun for her Southwest Detroit District is State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and she has become a target.

Moroun has been trying to build a second span right next to the current Ambassador Bridge - only one of two international border crossings in the country in private hands - but the Canadian and U.S. government wants to a new public-private bridge at a site located downriver from the current Ambassador Bridge at the site of the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) Study.

But that hasn’t stopped Moroun. He has already began building his bridge to keep his monopoly even though he does not have one single permit; not from the City of Detroit, the state of Michigan, the federal government or the Canadian government. The company is taking Riverside Park and 23rd street because it claims an old act of Congress designated it an instrument of the federal government because it controlled traffic on an international crossing.

His money has lined the pockets of Senate Republicans who are fighting the DRIC study and refuse to fund it, and Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, appears to be ready to go so far as to declare war on Canada because they are not willing to give Moroun a permit to land a second Ambassador Bridge on Canadian soil.

The Ambassador Bridge Company has even been dragging its feet on the $170 million Gateway Project; hoping to endanger the project to kill the DRIC bridge, and it could cost the state millions of dollars. The Gateway Project will address long term congestion mitigation issues and provide direct access improvements between the Ambassador Bridge, I-75 and I-96. The project will also reconstruct I-96 and I-75, accommodate traffic for a potential future second span of the Ambassador Bridge, and access to the Mexicantown International Welcome Center.

Subscription only Gongwer is reporting that the bridge company has hired connected Detroit political consultant Adolph Mongo to run a recall campaign against Tlaib, although no petitions have been filed with the Wayne County clerk.

The bridge company has been running a high-priced PR campaign against MDOT and any other person standing in their way. Apparently, the bridge company hired Mongo a few months ago to publicly rebut Tlaib’s comments on the bridge, including organizing a group of counter protestors during a recent U.S. Coast Guard hearing. The U.S. Coast Guard has asked the company to show why constructing the ramp before receiving the government's permission isn't a violation of the law.

Mongo has been invoked with many successful political campaigns, but he gained some notoriety in 2006 when he took out an ad in the Detroit-based Michigan Chronicle newspaper that featured photographs of Hitler and Gov. Jennifer Granholm and accused Democrats of taking African-American voters for granted.

Just say no to the recall, Moroun and the bridge company, but be careful if you do.

Another report proves a smoking ban is good for business

The evidence keeps piling up that a workplace ban, including bars and restaurants, will be a good thing for public health and will help business and not hurt it.

Grand Valley State University marketing professors Frederic Kraft and Suzeanne Benet have just concluded a study that shows non-smokers are more likely to go to a place that bans smoking and it’s less likely that a smoker will not go to a place simply because it bans smoking. It also voiced what most people already know or suspect: the interests of non-smokers should take the lead. If less than a quarter of the population smokes, why do we believe so few people carry so much clout, and why do we allow a small minority to endanger so many people’s health?

According to the Business Review Western Michigan, Kraft said non-smokers are "…more likely to take their business elsewhere if smoking is not effectively regulated, if not banned altogether.” This is in sharp contrast to the small, vocal minority who threaten to no longer go to a bar of they cannot light up inside.

It is also clear that groups who oppose it, like the Michigan Restaurant Association, are getting money from tobacco companies. Benet hinted at that in subscription only MIRS. "It appears that the voiced displeasure of a relatively small number of smokers has been unduly amplified by representatives of the tobacco industry,” she said. “This study indicates that smoking restrictions make a much greater difference to non-smokers than to smokers, and the impact of smoking on non-smokers should be the primary concern of hospitality industry decision-makers."

Earlier this week, the House approved a substitute to House Bill 5074 that banned smoking in workplaces, with the exception of non-Native American casinos, bingo-halls and so-called “cigar bars.” Earlier this month the Senate approved HB 4163 that was much more stringent and had no exceptions or so-called carve outs.

The GVSU report is the second report this month to be released that bolsters the fight to make Michigan smoke free. Earlier this month the leading Lansing research firm Public Sector Consultants Inc. released a report called “Smokefree workplaces: The Impact of House Bill 4163 on the Restaurant and Bar Industry in Michigan” that summarized 43 other studies and six public health reports across North America that have examined the economic and health aspects of banning workplace smoking in some form. The report concluded that "the vast majority" concluded there is no net economic impact on bars and restaurants. It also included polls showing increasing public support for bans, with support even stronger after bans have been enacted.

It’s unclear when the ban will be taken up by the Senate. Majority Leader Mike Bishop is a fierce opponent of the ban, and he kept the original bill bottled up in committee for months until overwhelming public support for the ban forced him to allow a vote. He may let it die in committee again and say he only promised one vote on the bill not two. However, the crowd at the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday let him know in no uncertain terms they support the ban.

According to subscription only Gongwer, “Bishop drew a pretty harsh reaction from the crowd for arguing freedom of choice in smoking.

When he proclaimed that people have the choice whether to patronize places that allow smoking, members of the audience asked about the choices of those who work in those places. "It's a small number of people,” he said. These people have the opportunity to choose where they want to work," he said to boos from many in the crowd.”

Dog eats Majority Leader’s homework or I forgot it

LANSING – The rumors were running rampant in the Capitol on Tuesday on why the House did not take up the smoking ban bill, House Bill 4163, and subscription only Gongwer confirmed them.

On Thursday the Senate approved a tougher substitute of the bill that was previously passed in the House in December, and it was expected the bill would move to the House for concurrence on that very Thursday. That didn’t happen because of the late hour, but it was sure to happen on Tuesday when the House and Senate reconvened.

Tuesday was also the day hundreds of people from the American Cancer Society descended on the Capitol for their annual mini-Relay for Life that raises money for cancer research and victims. The rumors were that Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, who blocked the House version since January and the Senate version since January 2007, failed to send the bill to the House. That was at least partially true in that it never made it the 100 or so feet, and the only thing that is in dispute is the reason.

To quote a famous Saturday Night Live character, “How convenient.”

The official alibi given was, “Senate Secretary Carol Viventi said it was the result of being unable to proofread the bill until Tuesday,” according to Gongwer. It also went on to say, “Viventi had previously planned a four-day weekend, so she was not available to review the bill on Friday or Monday. Then Tuesday she had car troubles trying to get into the Capitol.” Right. By the way, the Secretary of the Senate is appointed by the Majority Leader and is a member of the controlling party. The assistant is a member of the minority party, but Bishop is blocking that a replacement to that position, too.

Bishop, obviously, is opposed to the bill, but mounting public pressure forced him to allow a discharge vote Thursday, and his caucus apparently caught him by surprise when nine Republicans voted for the bill. He had planned to offer a sop substitute that would have allowed a bar or restaurant to opt out of the ban by just putting up a smoking allowed sign.

Passage in the House is no longer a slam dunk because the Senate version does not include exceptions for non-Native American casinos.

The fear is that lobbyists for the Detroit casinos, as well as the Michigan Restaurant Association, will be lobbying hard for a no vote. HB 4163 only passed by 10 votes in the House, and Detroit-area Representatives – under the mistaken belief Detroit casinos will lose business to places like Soaring Eagle – may vote no, either killing the bill or adding so-called “carve outs.” The bill would then have to go back to the Senate for either concurrence or a conference committee, but Bishop has said he committed to allowing one vote on the bill, not two. That would clear the way for him to introduce his watered down version.

If the House concurs with the substitute, it will be sent back to the Senate for enrollment and signature of the governor, and she has said she will sign the bill. The bill will take effect 90 days after the end of the current legislative session on December 31, so the effective date would be April 1, 2009. Traditionally, bills are given immediate effect after they are approved, meaning it would go into effect 90 days after the governor signed it. However, that takes a two-thirds vote or 26 votes in the Senate, and only 25 Senators voted for the bill.

Republican lawmaker introduces resolution supporting Andy Dillon

Sane people of all political stripes continue to line up behind House Speaker Andy Dillon to denounce the ridiculous and illegal recall against him for his vote for the increase of the income tax - and the since repealed sales tax on some services - that avoided a government shutdown and helped balanced the state budget on Oct. 1.

Both the subscription only MIRS and Gongwer reported that Rep. Dick Ball, R-Bennington Twp, introduced House Resolution 358 Thursday that would "express the sense of the House that recalls should be based on specific misconduct, criminal activity, or abuse of office and should not be based on a single vote and to denounce the effort to recall Speaker Andy Dillon." That’s also what the majority of voters think, and most state newspapers have editorialized that position. Both nonpartisan groups, like the Michigan Townships Association, and more partisan groups, like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, have also taken the same position.

Some of the political posturing by some other Republicans was laughable. Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire - who is running to be the minority leader or for the Michigan Court of Appeals, depending on what day it is – said, according to Gongwer, that the supporters of the resolution were “…engaging the chamber in a political issue.” What, the House of Representatives is a political organization that engages in politics? Why, I never.

Even more funny was the reaction of Republican Macomb County Commissioner Leon Drolet, who launched the illegal and unethical recall that used faked signatures, paid petition collectors who lied to get signatures and used out-of-district petition gathers to collect signatures. He said in MIRS that “he felt he could get some public relations traction just on the basis that the House was considering taking the resolution up.” With Drolet, that’s exactly what this witch-hunt is all about.

He also, of course, brought up Dillon’s long planned week of vacation with his family. Ironically, the bill that Republicans used to embarrass Dillon and illustrate the fact that he was gone, passed by a vote of 60-44 on Thursday. You will recall that on Wednesday, the Capital Outlay Budget – Senate Bill 511 – failed by just one vote. Drolet and company used that to try and say that if Dillon had been in the chamber it would have passed. They ignored, of course, that eight members were not at session yesterday and three Republicans did not even cast a vote in order to embarrass him.

Somebody better tell Elsenheimer about this politics thing in the chamber. I fail to see how introducing a bill or a resolution is political, but refusing to do what you were sent to Lansing to do is not political. To me, the actions by the three Republicans in refusing to vote might be more of a reason to recall a politician; for not doing what they were elected to do, instead of for doing what we sent them to do.

Gongwer also reported that the Department of State said on Thursday that it has conducted its initial review of the recall petition signatures found they have the required 8,724 signatures. Now if the SOS does its job properly, the fraud will begin to surface even more. The department will now proceed in matching the signatures to the qualified voter file to determine if there are enough to put the measure on the ballot.

Senate Democrats introduce resolution to stop secret votes and harassment of media

LANSING – The flap over the vote for the sales tax increase in the wee hours Monday morning has led Senate Democrats to introduce Senate Resolution 114 Thursday to amend the Senate Standing Rules to ensure there are no secret votes.

The trouble began around 3 a.m. Monday when the Senate was voting to give immediate effect to House Bill 5198. The bill to tax certain services had passed earlier with a 19-19 tie broken by Lt. Gov. John Cherry. Since the state government had been shut down at midnight, Cherry called for a vote to give the bill immediate effect instead the normal procedure that says a bill only takes effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session.

Immediate effect takes a two-thirds vote or approval by 26 Senators. However, those votes are not recorded in the Senate journal, and a photographer from the Senate Democratic Caucus was taking photos of the board. A number of Senate Republicans objected to that, and Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, then ordered all Senate staff off the floor.

Subscription only Gongwer reported, “In the process a news photographer began shooting the voting board - Senate rules forbid photographing a non-roll call vote - and several senators shouted the photographer should be thrown off and one demanded his tape be confiscated. A sergeant stood with the photographer while that portion of the tape was erased.” However, it cannot be verified if that incident actually took place.

Senate Republican leadership says the Senate rules bar the media from taking photos of the vote board during unrecorded votes. In an email response Carol Viventi, the Secretary of the Senate, said “Consequently, no one, media included can take pictures of the board when it is an unrecorded vote.” But that’s news to some regular media that cover the Capitol on a regular basis. Phillip Hendricks, the news director at Lansing TV station WLNS, said he has never heard of that rule.

“I don’t know of any policy that prohibits us filming anything,” he said. “We have never had a problem, and we film what ever we want.”

Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, said the caucus photographer was shooting the board at his request, and he and the caucus attorney checked for any written policy that prohibited staff from shooting photos of the board. He said any change in Senate rules must be approved by a vote of the full Senate. Schauer said he received a letter from Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, in response to what rules were used to stop the board from being photographed that cited a policy Schauer said he cannot find, and he also said he cited “long-standing custom and usage” as the precedent for banning visual recording of the vote board for non-record votes. Schauer said the so-called long-standing custom violates both the spirit of the Open Meetings Act and the Constitution.

“We have no right as Senators to cast votes in secret,” Schauer said. “I will always error on the side of openness.”

The resolution will amend the standing rules to allow no secret votes, and to allow the press, public and staff to photograph the board at any point in the Senate session.

“Our First Amendment is clear, our Constitution is clear, our rules are clear - the public has a right to know how we represent them in this chamber,” Schauer said in a press release. “The resolution we offer today should not even be necessary, but it will once and for all end any perception that there are secret votes in this Senate.”

Positive news from conference depresses GOP

If the Pistons loss in double overtime that put them on the brink of elimination didn’t place enough of a pall over the entire state, Michigan Republicans are even more depressed to hear the news coming out of the annual Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island.

Subscription only Gongwers reports “A solid majority of business executives polled by the Detroit Regional Chamber believe that Michigan's business climate will be stronger in five years.”

Sad, sad news for Michigan Republicans who are so quick and so enjoy pointing out the state’s high unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate and lowered bond rates. They, of course, ignore the fact they are primarily responsible for the bond rating, the person in the White House has lost 3 million jobs by refusing to enforce trade agreements - most of those jobs from the largest employer in the state - and the unemployment rate was at double digits under a Republican governor. That’s when I left the state to join the military, but despite the GOP constantly running my state down, I’m staying. Isn’t sad that the Republicans are pulling against Michigan and bashing it just to get back the political power they lost?

“The poll was done of 211 senior-level executives by John Bailey & Associates for the Chamber, and 74 percent believed the business climate would be improved in five years.

I think it’s patriotic to question and criticize the government, but this constant Michigan bashing is just ridiculous. It’s like telling your wife you love her, but she’s fat, ugly and lazy.

If Republicans didn't need any more bad news, Gongwers says a report released at the conference says Michigan's three largest universities outperform some of the best-known university research systems in other states.
The study looking at the university research corridor was commissioned from Pat Anderson of Anderson Economic Group. Mr. Anderson said the three universities spend a total of $6.5 billion, which amounts to 2 percent of the state's total economic activity, and together account for $1.3 billion in research and development funding.
The total quantified earnings of all the alumni of the three universities living in Michigan is more than $24 billion.
The study compared the total spent by the Michigan universities on research to universities in Massachusetts (Harvard, MIT and Tufts), North Carolina (University of North Carolina, Duke and North Carolina State) and Pennsylvania (Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University), and Mr. Anderson said he was surprised to see that Michigan schools outspent the schools in those states.

Even more bad news for Republicans: Republican and Democratic leaders say they've reached a consensus on two tough items that have divided them in replacing the Single Business Tax.

Some Republicans even criticized Democrats for going to the conference; ignoring the fact that Republicans were there too. The biggest complainant was that the Democratic-controlled House did not hold session on Thursday to go to the conference in the face of the budget crises while the Republican-controlled Senate did. This, of course, ignored the fact that the House has held sessions on Monday where the Senate does not.

It also ignores the fact the Senate met for about 65 minutes on Thursday, and all but 10 minutes of that were spent listing to a Teddy Roosevelt look-alike give a speech he gave 100 years ago in the Senate chamber.

TV political ads outpace actual political coverage on TV news

Both the subscription only Gongwer News and MIRS are both reporting on the great job TV “news” did on covering politics in the last election cycle, and it compared the amount of time it spent on actual coverage of the election and issues compared to the obscene amount of cash it took in from political commercials.

As a former print reporter, I clearly have a bias for newspapers. But it takes no genius to see how shallow TV news really is. They spend more time promoting and hyping what’s coming next than on politics. That’s followed closely by crime coverage. Newspapers do a much better job, and they pay for the ink and newsprint to convey the in-depth information. TV uses the public airway for free, and most of the estimated $34 million of his own money the Amway Guy spent went to these TV stations for ads.

In the month leading up to the election, Great Lakes states saw 2.5 times more political TV advertising than they did 30-minute TV news covering the election, according to the second part of a study released by the University of Wisconsin's NewsLab.
According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN), in Lansing political coverage averaged 1.46 minutes of airtime during a 30-minute newscast. Through September, the average was 27 seconds of airtime on political stories during a newscast.
In Detroit, the MCFN said, the average in October and leading up to the November 7 election was 1.23 minutes of time, compared to 22 seconds of time spent in September.
But political advertising in the Detroit market averaged 4.21 minutes per newscast. Similar, comparable data to the amount of political ads in the Lansing market was not available.
However, Ken Goldstein of the (University of) Wisconsin study said that in all the markets, all ads as well as weather and sports coverage took more than half of a newscasts' time at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Each broadcast averaged about nine political ads, Mr. Goldstein said.
Taken alone, the lousy job TV did covering the election and the issues is atrocious, but when you combine the TV ads its obscene. TV stations need to take those millions it pocketed and actually fulfill its mission of informing the public on the issues, or it needs to start being charged for using those airwaves like newspapers are charged for ink and newsprint.

I would like to see more local political and issue shows. The best in the state, “Off the Record” is on public television. The only local issues show on commercial TV I know of is on WDIV Detroit.

Ward bails on colleagues

News Flash, both MIRS and Gongwer both report Chris Ward was elected House Minority Floor Leader after both parties caucused most of the day on Tuesday, despite Ward taking himself out of any leadership consideration the day before. I’m not sure what this means, other than the Republicans have no plans to practice any form of bipartisanship for the next two years.

According to the subscription only Gongwer News, Chris Ward is taking his ball and going home because the Republicans lost control of the House, and because he can no longer be the House Majority Floor Leader he doesn’t wan to the be the Minority Floor Leader.

“Late Monday Mr. Ward sent a letter to his colleagues saying he would not seek re-election as floor leader or election to any other House Republican leadership post.”

Apparently, Mr. Ward’s heavy-handed tactics while Majority Floor Leader are coming home to roost, and he recognizes with the arrogant and sarcastic way he treated Representatives on the other side of the aisle there was no use for him to try and pretend to work with the majority party. Obviously, this means even less influence for Livingston County lawmakers in Lansing.