by Tim Skubick
July 31, 2009

Business and organized labor in this state have been at each other’s throats for decades.

The names and faces have changed, but the essence of the struggle remains pretty much the same. That is up until right now.

Organized labor has never been totally unified, so that is nothing new. But now there are some raised eyebrows in the business realm toward Doug Rothwell, who runs Detroit Renaissance, a prominent Southeast Michigan business group.

Rothwell is the former high-level honcho of former Gov. John Engler who did most of his work out of the public spotlight.

In recent months, however, Rothwell has upped his public profile, some say. To be sure, he’s not on the evening news every night, but some in the business community are wondering…what’s he doing?

One source, who watches this stuff very closely, reports that Rothwell is “trying to expand his own power base.” He is going into parts of the state that have traditionally been the purview of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

It’s not that Rothwell is trying to “steal” chamber support, this source opines. He’s just trying to garner additional backing for his own purposes. But what are they?

Naturally, you’re thinking he wants to run for some office.

He recently told the Detroit Free Press, “You can be effective at advancing change without having to be a politician.” And asked point blank if he was running for governor, he gave a quick and unmistakable “no.”

Let’s take him at his word, but perhaps what he is really all about is king making, as in being the power behind the throne.

To wit: eyebrows were raised when Rothwell hooked up with the Democratic speaker of the House earlier this year to launch a business tax reform effort.

Andy Dillon, who is a Democrat, has flirted with running for governor himself. At the outset the Dillon/Rothwell axis was a curious marriage, but not to some Democrats who have always wondered if Dillon is a true-blue Democrat.

Noticeably absent from the axis were the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and organized labor. They weren’t invited into the room. Labor was miffed and said so. The chamber several weeks ago asserted that it wanted no part of the discussions anyway, because it looked as though a graduated income tax would emerge from the Dillon/Rothwell effort.

Shortly after that, Rothwell suggested that Dillon was not a major player in all this. It was a strange statement that seemingly denied reality, since it was Dillon’s idea to convene the groups in the first place.

Then media reports surfaced that Detroit Renaissance and the Detroit Regional Chamber were at odds with the Michigan Chamber on the graduated tax. The reports said the Michigan chamber was against it but the other groups were considering it.

The two Detroit business groups came unglued telling the media there was no disagreement, and to prove it they both denounced the graduated tax idea.

It gave the illusion of unity.

Rothwell says all this stuff is news to him. He pleads not guilty to empire building or king making while admitting that he has met with CEOs in outstate Michigan — but, he adds, he’s not aware of any prohibition against him traveling beyond Detroit.

Despite his not guilty assertion, segments of the business community have heard the speculation he is up to something. They just don’t know what that something is.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972.

Tim Skubick Extra Extra… (A weekly bonus for Dome readers)

Is Pop a Food?

Where’s Black Bart when ya need him?

Who can forget the old Faygo soft-drink commercial, “Which way did he go? Which way did he go?”

Well, Faygo and its competitors may need Black Bart to win a legislative shoot-out that has begun to unfold.

Under current Michigan law, the state’s 6-percent sales tax does not apply to soda pop because it is considered a food. But alas, some lawmakers are looking at a plan that would reclassify pop as a non-food and slap the sales tax on it.

Michigan Soft Drink Association lobbyist Bill Lobenherz contends pop is a food and argues that if you were on a desert island with nothing to eat but had an endless supply of pop, you would live.

He says the product has two or three of the “essential nutrients” of life, i.e. water, phosphorus and sugar.

Tell that to Andy Dillon, the House speaker who has endorsed the reclassification proposal, which means Lobenherz has his work cut out for him. In these tough economic times, lawmakers are scratching to find more scratch wherever they can — and pop is on the radar screen.

As for the argument pop is a food, Dillon tells reporters, “We can legislate what it is, I think.”

Translated: if lawmakers wanted to call a T-bone steak non-food they could, which is why Lobenherz counters that if they try to do that to pop, “we’d have to take it to court.”

And he reports courts in other states have sided with the industry.

So pull up a Red Pop. This could get ugly.

Oilman Andy

He’s at it again.

Having poked around in the political hornets nest of insurance for public employees, now he’s drilling for oil and hoping to net the state some badly needed bucks in the process.

House Speaker Andy Dillon seeks to reinvent the way the state does business with the oil and gas exploration folks, and those folks don’t like it one iota.

For years, speculators obtained a lease from the state, got a shovel and drill and went to work. Dillon supports a “joint venture” whereby the oil and gas guys would partner with the state to search for black gold and gas.

And if Dillon is right, the state could increase its profits from the current 18 percent for selling the lease to 58 percent of the take from whatever is found underground.

That’s what reportedly happened in Oklahoma, Texas and Kentucky, y’all.

Dillon thinks the current system has been “poorly managed.” Too often those who get the lease sit on it and never poke a hole in the ground. Supposedly with the state involved, there would be more poking and maybe more largess for the state’s woefully empty coffers.

But the lobbyist for the industry says, “there’s nothing good for the state in this.” On top of that, Frank Mortl thinks it would be illegal and require a constitutional change to implement.

Bottom line, the speaker has another political war on another front. That’s two and counting.

Miss Congeniality II

John McCain (surely your remember the maverick) often got a good chuckle on the stump when he noted that he would never win the “Miss Congeniality” title in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. McCain, meet Mark Brewer.

Brewer, now the longest serving state Democratic Party chair in the country, is the proverbial pain in the you-know-what for state Republicans.

Ask Dick DeVos, the China job-creating loser for governor.

Ask Cliff Taylor, the “sleeping judge.”

Ask Rich Studley, who runs the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

Last week Brewer called in the Capitol scribes and boldly announced that he would survey his party to see what issues should be placed on the November 2010 ballot.

He listed a hike in the minimum wage, more jobless benefits, better health care and a one-year hold on home foreclosures, among others.

Well, Studley came unglued and beat up Brewer for being so “anti-business.”

Brewer claims he’s not anti-business, he’s just pro-people and anti-anybody with an elephant for a mascot.

However, Brewer got a bad case of lockjaw the other day when the shoe was on the other foot.

Democratic Speaker Andy Dillon has stirred up a real hornets nest with his universal public employee health insurance scheme that has divided organized labor, which Brewer seeks to please.

Despite reporters coming at him every which way, Brewer refused to take sides in the Dillon vs. labor battle.

“I haven’t seen his plan,” was Brewer’s lame excuse. Come on, Marky. He didn’t need to see the plan to comment on the politics of the intra-party feud that’s getting worse by the moment.

Republicans must have had a chuckle to see Brewer on the hot seat, as he was on the defensive for a change and did not looking very credible being there.