Speaker Dillon outlines an ambitious agenda fore the 95th Michigan Legislature

LANSING -- The opening of the 95th Michigan Legislature on Wednesday was routine, unless you were one of the 44 new House members who took the oath of office from Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh.

The Senate met briefly and adjourned, but the excitement was in the House with the new Representative that increased the Democrats lead in the House to 67-43, up from 58-52 when the Democrats took back control of the House in 2007. Family and friends were on hand on the House floor and in the galleries to watch the ceremony, highlighted by Rep. Joel Sheltrown, D-West Branch, playing "How Great Thou Art" on his saxophone. Members chose their seats in the House Chamber, and elected the Speaker of the House.

New Majority Floor Leader Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, nominated last session’s Speaker, Rep. Andy Dillon, D-Redford, who was elected unanimously.

“Our country and state are in a time of transition and changes, and we need strong leadership to see us through,” Angerer said. “We need honest, ethical leaders like Andy Dillon.”

Dillon’s nomination was seconded by new Minority Leader Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, saying the speaker has been willing to meet with him over the past several weeks. Early indications are he will be an improvement over term-limited Minority Leader Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, who has nothing but an impediment.

“It is my honor to second the nomination of Andy Dillon as Speaker of the House,” Elsenheimer said.

Dillon outlined a broad and ambitious agenda that included reforming the state's tax structure, cutting property taxes, eliminating the Michigan Business Tax surcharge, addressing home foreclosures and enacting a workplace smoking ban. He wants to accomplish the bulk of the work before the Legislature breaks for the summer in June.

“We are serving in the most challenging economic climate since the Great Depression,” he said. “We may not be able to fix all the problems, but shame on us if we don't do what we can.”

He is also facing a current budget shortfall of $350 million and as much as $1.5 billon drop in tax revenue next year. He also wants to cut lawmakers pay and lifetime health care after just six years.

“If we are going to ask other people to sacrifice, then we must lead by example,” he said.

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.