Ducking Taxes

by Tim Skubick

April 2, 2010

In an election year, lawmakers are loath to vote for a tax increase. Nothing new or profound about that.

But they are more willing to belly up to the tax hike bar in the lame-duck season after everyone is safely re-elected. Nothing new or profound about that either.

In fact, many of the special interest groups are marking time to get November’s election out of the way so they can get their mud hooks on some green.

But consider this: the lame-duck session may be more lame than usual and the desire to boost taxes may be even less than it is right now.

Count Governor Jennifer Granholm as a believer in that notion.

“If you put a vote off until lame duck, you’re not going to get big votes anyway…It’s not going to work,” she figures.

After the election, a new governor will be coming to town and his or her party will want to wait until that arrival to craft any tax increases.

For example, if a Republican replaces Granholm, why would the Democrats want to pass a tax hike this year, when they can dump this turkey of a budget mess on the new governor and let him grapple for new money (if he concludes new money is needed)?

And if, per chance, a Democrat takes over from Granholm, Republicans won’t want to help him or her either.

Therefore, you have a lame-duck stalemate that can’t be broken.

State Budget Director Bob Emerson, a former legislative leader, has his own theory.

He doesn’t believe that lawmakers have the stomach to make all the state service cuts that are now on the table. Yet, he concedes lawmakers are doomed either way.

If they vote for taxes and go home and try to get re-elected, they will be worried. But if they make all these cuts to schools, colleges, cops, firefighters and the like, they could be in hot water, too.

Emerson, with all this fingers and toes crossed, hopes that new revenue “may seem like a more rational decision compared to other decisions.”

The governor chimes in, “The logical step is to take care of it [raising money] quickly, rather than to drag it out” closer to the election.

There’s that word “logic.”

It is logical to raise the rental car tax to fund the Pure Michigan tourism ad campaign. It is logical to boost the sales tax on services to avoid a nasty $255-per-pupil cut in the K-12 system. It is logical to close some tax loopholes and use that money to backfill the Promise Grant for college kids and replace services that have been depleted over the years.

But when has logic ever prevailed in the legislature?

The governor says, “I don’t disagree.”

At this read, however, the legislative Republicans are heck-bent on passing this budget without anything that even smells like a tax hike — and that includes closing tax loopholes.

The governor is convinced that Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, who wants to be state attorney general, will not even permit a vote on raising revenue. He allowed a vote in 2007 and is still paying the price with the anti-government crowd in the GOP.

Asked if Mr. Bishop was playing politics and trumping good public policy, she asserts: “It absolutely is.”

And there are a host of folks in town who believe she is absolutely right.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s Senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972. He also covers the Capitol and politics for WLNS-TV6 in Lansing.

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

On Second Thought
Poor Rep. Richard LeBlanc from Westland. He is the former local cop turned chairperson of the Michigan State Police budget in the Michigan House.

He had this brainstorm two weeks ago to shutter the State Police post in downtown Detroit.

Democrat LeBlanc was hunting for some cost savings, but had no intentions of yanking the state cops out of the city; instead he was going to scatter them around into other cop shops in the county.

Years ago, the chairperson of an important committee pretty much got his or her way. Oh boy, those are not these days — as Mr. LeBlanc found out in no uncertain terms.

First, the state police presence in Motown is not a recent development. In reality, it goes back to the administration of former Gov. Bill Milliken at the time Coleman Young ran things in the city.

After some heinous crimes were committed on Detroit freeways and at a time when local cops were being laid off, Milliken sent in his trusty sidekick George Weeks to look for a solution.

And, as they say, the rest is history and the guys and gals in blue have been there ever since.

Enter LeBlanc, who got hit with a barrage of pressure from members of the Detroit legislative delegation, and supposedly from the House speaker, who is, after all, running for governor and would like some votes out of Detroit.

Sheepishly under the onslaught, LeBlanc has backed off. He refuses to say he was pressured. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, so let’s just say he had no choice but to recant. In other words, he was pressured.

He still asserts he will get some cost savings, but the crooks in Detroit were hoping he would win this tug-of-war.

And, frankly, so were all those motorists with a lead foot.

Getting To Know You
GOP outsider Rick Snyder is proud that he has no hands-on experience in Lansing. All we basically know about him is what we can glean from his TV commercials.

We know he doesn’t like ties, he owns some weird kinda looking furniture, he’s a business guy, knows how to use a computer, likes to stick his tongue out and has linked himself to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Superman. And he’s a BMOC.

What’s that you say, he is not a Big Man on Campus? He’s a nerd?

Well imagine that.

Frankly, this is not much to go on. Hence, you would expect that he would gladly participate in a time-honored tradition in town, i.e. filling out questionnaires so that special interest groups can get to know him.

Turns out Mr. Snyder is not playing the game.

Maybe he’s bashful?

Maybe he doesn’t know all the right answers?

Regardless, Snyder’s unwillingness to fill out these questionnaires is raising some eyebrows. He says he’s not filling them out because it is inconsistent with his agenda to turn Michigan’s economy around.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce won’t interview Snyder for an endorsement unless he fills in some of their blanks.

And here’s a biggy in the GOP primary: looks like Snyder can’t get the endorsement of Michigan Right to Life unless he sends back its survey.

Even if he does, he still may not get the endorsement. He supported embryonic stem cell research and would allow for an abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Those are deal breakers for MRTL, yet the head of the group’s Political Action Committee is not ready to write off Snyder just yet.

Larry Galmish says sometimes candidates say one thing and, later on, say another. So the PAC is willing to interview Snyder and if, afterwards, he has some more acceptable positions and fills out the questionnaire, he will be cool with the group.

Actually, all the other GOP contenders are hoping Snyder doesn’t flip on the issues or fill out the survey. Because then MRTL will conclude he is pro-abortion, and that means the group will make an endorsement in the race.

If all the candidates are pro-life, the organization stays out of the primary. But if someone in the field is not, the group wades in.

So even if Snyder fills out the paper, Mike Cox, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Bouchard and Tom George may try to steal it so that they can get the group’s blessing.

Maybe Superman can help Snyder out if that happens.