Term Limits

A 12-year study has concluded that lobbyist influence has been boosted by Michigan's term limits. (Lansing State Journal)

AT A GLANCE

In 1993, Michigan enacted term limits that restrict state House members to three two-year terms and state senators to two four-year terms. A new 12-year study from Wayne State University concludes that term limits have:

• Caused many novice lawmakers to rely increasingly on lobbyists for information related to legislation.

• Led to an erosion of the power of committee chairs, which has hindered the legislative process.

• Led to less interaction between agency heads and lawmakers, and less effective oversight by lawmakers.

The Governor and the State Legislature are debating proposals to reform state employee retirement funding (including K-12 and university employees). The proposals would save hundreds of millions of dollars and reduce the state budget deficit. Here is a review of the proposals:

Reform proposals

Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Would increase the multiplier used to calculate monthly pension checks from 1.5 percent to 1.6 percent for employees who retire between July 1 and Aug. 31.

Require state employees eligible for defined benefit pensions to contribute 3 percent of their pay; they now pay nothing toward retirement.

Eliminate vision and dental coverage for retirees; those who retire by Aug. 31 would get to keep these benefits.
The House

Plan is identical to the governor's.
The Senate

Would adopt provisions of the governor's plan, but eliminate the incentive of an increased multiplier for those who retire by Aug. 31.

Below is a Detroit News story on the funding options:

State Senate's early-out plan may be dead

GOP plans to tweak workers pension bill; Dems say time's up

Karen Bouffard / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing -- Senate Republicans plan to tweak their state employee early retirement bills during the Legislature's two-week break that starts today -- but some Democrats say it's wasted effort since the reforms are dead.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm called on lawmakers to pass the legislation by April 1 to provide enough time for workers to decide if they want to leave their jobs and implement the rules of the program before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1. But the Senate bills didn't gain enough support this past week. Lawmakers don't return from break until April 13, meaning they've missed Granholm's target.

The Democratic governor called for the reforms to help fill a $1.7 billion budget gap. Early retirement and new contributions to retirement plans, along with similar efforts to reform the teacher retirement system, would result in combined savings of about $300 million, supporters say.

New Tax on Services to Fund Education

Governor Granholm is proposing a sales tax on services. Michigan tried that once and it was a disaster because the law was sloppily written and filled with unintended consequences. So this time she is proposing a different version. Republicans say no to the tax at this time. Democratic House Speaker says he wants to get the budget done before he discusses new revenue. I guess that means lots of cuts to balance the budget and then we come back and restore funding if we get new taxes. Huh? Sure is confusing. I guess that means that everyone wants to get through the election before discussing budget reform, tax/revenue reform and Michigan's future. This is another example of the State leadership not being able to work together, even on a crisis the size of the one facing Michigan. Depressing.

Here is an article on the topic that appeared in Detroit News:

Granholm: Sales tax on services needed to bolster education

Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm defended her proposal to extend the sales tax to services on a cable TV news show this morning, saying Michigan "has to invest in education" to convert from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy.

The governor said on MSNBC that Michigan has "a big, hairy audacious goal of doubling our number of college graduates." In order to do that, she said the state has to stop cutting education spending, which it did this year by $165 per student.

Since public school aid is funded primarily with sales taxes, the state needs to update and stabilize its sales levy by expanding it to include most services, Granholm said. In the past century, about 60 percent of consumer purchases were made on goods and today about two-thirds is spent on services, she said.

Incarceration in Michigan and In America

In a recent book, The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, she presents the following statistics:

• "our incarceration practices are expensive, ineffective and based on insanity."
• "In 1965 we had one seventh of the world's prisoners."
• "Today the US has one fourth of the world's prisoners."
• "Today an African American child is five times as likely to see the inside of a jail."

Sports, Tuition and State Aid

The Iowa Board of Regents (for the three public universities) has passed a resolution calling for an investigation as to whether with all the cuts in state aid and increases in tuition put on students and families, the universities should be prohibited from allowing any state aid or tuition money to be spent on NCAA sports--football, hockey, etc.. All these sports must be self sustaining--ticket revenue and donor revenue are the only things that can be used to support these athletic programs.

Interesting eh?

The argument being presented is whether it is fair to allow money to be diverted from academic purposes into these other extra curricular programs.

Several other states are doing the same investigation.

Michigan, your serve!

Legislature and Vacations

The Michigan Legislature is on break for a couple of weeks--a grueling few months and not much accomplished. Whew. Hard work but someone has to do it. Maybe this is why folks are screaming for a part time legislature.