by Tim Skubick
August 14, 2009

If ever there was a time for the freshman class in the Michigan House to assert its influence (if it has any), the time is yesterday.

Recall that the group of 44 newbies — 26 Democrats and 18 Republicans — arrived in town all souped up to change the world. God love’em.

They signed a bipartisan pledge to cooperate with each other … even when they disagreed. They would be agents of change … or so we thought.

But to date, during these dog days of summer, with all due respect, the freshmen caucus looks like a puppy with its tail between its legs.

They went bowling to foster more camaraderie, but that’s about it.

It’s not that there’s a lack of issues to tackle.

Imagine the impact if the gang of 44 signed a pledge to give back part of their paycheck en masse. It could goad the old-timers to do the same or face the wrath of God back home.

Imagine the impact if the 44 took a stance against the behavior of the governor, the Senate GOP leader and the Democratic speaker of the House …

Madam Governor, show us your plan to balance the budget; the plan you made public seven months ago has changed dramatically. Even you, yourself, said the new plan was “more robust,” but why won’t you let us see it? That’s what leadership is.

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. Which is it? For once, stand up and be counted.

Speaker Dillon, shame on you for proposing a dramatic plan to reinvent the public employee public health system but failing to include anybody else, including us, in the formulation. And while we are at it, the freshman class thinks it is unconscionable that your party has shut out Republicans from debating issues on the House floor. Can you say “fairness?”

Okay, maybe calling out the governor and top legislative leaders is too risky even for a group that indicated it was willing to take risks for the betterment of the system.

But surely the 44 could agree that the summer “work” schedule has been a joke, irresponsible and an embarrassment. The House has met one time since the first of July. That’s a six-week summer snooze.

Yeah, yeah, we know, everyone has been working back in the district. But come on, if these new lawmakers have any desire to shake things up, it’s time to forcibly speak out. Instead, they appear to lack the nerve. In fact, one of the freshmen leaders says they are looking for a “softer” issue to tackle first.

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.

Ironically, these 44 freshmen were elected in large part because they were not part of the system. When they went campaigning door to door, citizens wanted to know, “Are you the incumbent?”

But more and more, minus any effort to assert their strength, the freshmen look like incumbents falling into the age-old Lansing malaise of going along to get along. Shame on them, too.

As the comic strip character Pogo lamented: “We have looked at the enemy and he is us.”

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)

Growth Industry
Some of my friends are for it and some of my friends are against it. And me? I’m with my friends.

That might well be the best way to sum up the agonizing debate over the prospects that Barack Obama may send us some suspected terrorists who now live in the gulag at Guantanamo Bay. In fact, this week the prez sent two emissaries to check out a prison up north.

No one knows if the federal prisoners will end up in Standish, but this week at the first public hearing on the possibility, everyone was all over the lot on the merits of “Gitmo comes to Michigan.”

With the state about to shutter the maximum-security prison, the governor is more open to housing crooks from California than the inmates at Gitmo, but her view is not shared by all.

While the governor frets, Alan Kilar from the UAW, which represents workers at the prison, has no fears. “I don’t think it’s a worry.” Kilar wants to save jobs.

And so does union brother Mel Grieshaber, who runs the state Corrections Officers outfit. He, on the other hand, wants no part of the Gitmo crowd. “All of the jobs will be filled by the feds or the military. What good does that do us?”

Then there is local Arenac County Commissioner Mike Snyder, who would welcome the Gitmo guys with open arms. “They are human beings. They are not supermen. They won’t bring bombs.”

However, will having them in Standish attract outsiders who do carry bombs?

Snyder rejects that, claiming that if two or three Arabs show up in downtown Standish, the “sheriff will know about it in two or three minutes.”

Rep. Joel Sheltrown, from the area, worries more about the California inmates who could include hardened gang members whose families may follow the convicts to Standish. Then what?

All of this made for delightful theatre for the media, which is tired of the budget deficit story.

Turns out Michigan may be on the verge of a true growth industry. Pennsylvania is making noises it likes Standish, too, for housing some of its crooks.

Say yes to Michigan.

Is There a Doctor in the House?
As the beloved news media get ready to exploit another round of the swine flu story, a debate is unfolding over building more medical schools to produce more physicians to fight it and other diseases.

The latest entrant is Central Michigan University.

It’s a free country and if CMU wants to pursue this, it has every right. But while the country is free, med schools are not, and last time anybody checked, the state is not exactly flush in bucks.

The ultimate question: is this a necessity or a luxury?

There is a projected shortage of doctors, but the state already has three med schools at MSU, U of M and Wayne State and has one more ready to come online at Oakland University. The Broncos at Western Michigan want a piece of the action, too.

Why stop there? What about the Yoopers? No med school in the Upper Peninsula. What about Alpena? There’s nothing for the thumb. And no school in Ludington on the other side of the state either.
You get the point. Where does it end, and at what cost?

There are several issues underneath all this. First, every university lusts for a med school because it adds to the school’s prestige, which adds to its fundraising prowess. Second, we are talking about convenience here. Let’s be honest, if a kid in Alpena wants to be a doctor, he or she can get on U.S. 23, which ends up in Ann Arbor; those kids don’t need one in their backyard.

This has not reached critical mass in the legislature as of yet, but it will — and what will the politicians say? The ones from the central Michigan region will side with Central Michigan, and the loyalists from the Big Three schools will seek to block the competition. And in the midst of the worst economy the state has ever seen, we will have a debate over pouring more money into yet another med school.

Which proves once more that that word “No” is the least used word in this town.

Shot of Courage
If only they could administer a shot of political courage to lawmakers in this town.

But alas, no drug maker has such a concoction. So the head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the former Senate GOP leader tried to administer a little verbal medication instead.

For two years the road-building lobby has been demanding more dollars to repair the crumbling highway system in the state. The last time lawmakers did that was in 1997 under then-GOP Governor John Engler.

And that’s the point Rich Studley from the chamber and Ken Sikkema from a local think tank were making. It’s OK for Republicans to vote for a gas tax hike, and they won’t be kicked out of office if they do.

In fact, the trend around the country has been, according to Sikkema, that Republican governors and legislators have been leading the way on these revenue hikes.

“You can survive,” Sikkema reassured jittery Rs.

Studley applied a little more salve, saying there is a difference in a user fee, which a gas tax apparently is, compared to a general tax hike on anything else. And he believes voters understand the difference.

Or do they?

Therein lies the political dilemma. If voters treat the gas tax just like any other tax increase, it produces considerable risk for lawmakers running next year.

And no matter how loud or how long Messrs. Studley and Sikkema try to calm nerves, the medicine may not take … self-survival being what it is.

Give credit to at least one guy.

For weeks the governor’s office has complained that Democrats need Republicans to co-sponsor any revenue hike for the roads so that the voter backlash, if any, is bipartisan.

Sen. Jud Gilbert (R-Algonac) has raised his hand and will push the bill this fall even though he is running for the House next year. There’s at least one GOP lawmaker who shows some political courage.

But is it a contagious disease?