Political Theatre=Lousy Legislation

The Michigan Legislature once again has given us some good political theater that has little to do with the welfare of the people. It’s been a pattern for some time, so we shouldn’t be surprised.

The latest example came earlier this month when the state House and Senate quickly, enthusiastically and with great fanfare, approved elimination of the dreaded "job killer," the Single Business Tax, only to watch Gov. Jennifer Granholm veto the bill. The developments set the stage for a melodrama pitting the tax-cutting good guys, Republicans, against the business-hating Democratic governor.

Sorry, folks, it’s just not as simple as our esteemed lawmakers would like us to believe. Granholm, and most other folks for that matter, agree the Single Business Tax must go, but like a responsible parent urging her kids to eat their veggies, she admonishes the children in the Legislature that they must find a way to make up for the lost revenue as a result of eliminating the SBT instead of continuing the Republican record of partying now and letting someone else clean up the mess. Some of the kids insist abolishing the SBT will generate more tax revenue because it will stimulate business, but even an economic idiot should understand that won’t happen soon enough to stop the bleeding from lost revenue. Therefore, it would mean more cutting for roads, police, fire, revenue sharing and education over the next year. Just what this state needs, eh?

Furthermore, where the hell were these guys and dolls on the SBT over the last 30-some years? Former State Senator Ed Fredricks of Holland was beating that drum loudly in 1975, just after he was first elected to the House. For many years afterward, he was a lonely voice in the wilderness and didn’t get any traction on the issue throughout the 1980s, even with his GOP comrades in both the House and Senate.

So now, after all these years, the Single Business Tax becomes a hot issue, even though the Republican Party has held a majority in one or both chambers since 1990 and until Granholm came along in 2002, also owned the governor’s chair. These shenanigans came on the heels of their magificent performance on the proposed minimum wage increase last month. Here was an issue the GOP majority said was dead in the water because it would cost jobs. Yet when both the House and Senate saw a petition drive to get the proposal on the ballot in November pick up steam, they suddenly (within a week of each other) voted to approve a minimum wage hike to take effect in October (imagine that, just in time!). Some have suggested, including myself, the GOP majority’s sudden change of heart had little to do with concern for the ordinary workers in Michigan (who make too much already according to Dick Devos' wife and former state Republican Party Chairwoman Betsy DeVos), but a lot to do with the fear a minimum wage issue on the ballot would draw a lot of anti-Dick DeVos voters to the polls and help Granholm win a second term as Governor this November.

Many of these same legislators played the same game of political posturing with us several years ago when they accepted their 40 percent wage increases. House members, one of them Patty Birkholz, grandstanded and voted to turn down the raises, knowing bloody well their comrades in the Senate were not in session and could not do likewise in rejecting the raise. So, by the rules of the game, the pay increases went into effect despite all their on-the-record protestations about how they were against it. I repeat — Great theater, lousy legislation.

No wonder there’s a Fire the Senate campaign out there.