By John Bebow - July 9, 2008
As the Center for Michigan detailed this spring in "A Common Ground Agenda for Michigan's Transformation," Michigan voters are generally fed up with partisanship and eager for pragmatic problem solving in the state capitol.
That's among the reasons this Fresh Thoughts newsletter so celebrated the recent water legislation compromise driven home by Rep. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, and Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck.
Unfortunately, legislative leaders were up to some of their old partisan tricks last week, as the lobbying firm of Muchmore, Harrington, Smalley & Associates (MHSA) explained in their weekly e-newsletter:
While monkeying yet again with the state's business tax system, the House tacked on a completely unrelated provision that would, according to MHSA, "among other things, allow unionized state employees to make contributions to political action committees via payroll deduction."
Down the hall, in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, responded to recent shenanigans in which Democrats briefly took advantage of Republican absences, seized control of the floor, and attempted to push forward several bills that surely wouldn't have advanced via a full vote. Bishop responded in kind by booting two Democratic Senators, Mark Schauer and Gretchen Whitmer, from certain committee assignments.
All three — the PAC payroll deduction move, the Dem's coup in the Senate, and Bishop's retribution — are examples of the kind of partisan haymakers that cause so much frustration among the voters.
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