The big, new, complicated plan to reform Lansing ironically takes advantage of a glaring weakness in Michigan campaign finance law, Michigan’s political money watchdog Rich Robinson pointed out in the Free Press this week.
“It’s an absolutely ridiculous system that results in us not knowing anything about who is behind this until a month after they get on the ballot,” Robinson said of the Reform Michigan Now petitions undoubtedly floating around a strip mall parking lot near you.
We raised questions about the Reform Michigan Now plan last week. As with other recent plans that would punish Lansing for a job poorly done, this one attacks the current legislative system with vengeance. Legislative pay, for example, would be cut by 25 percent. As we’ve said before, at a time when Michigan arguably needs executive-level leadership in the state Capitol, is that the kind of reform that will recruit talented people to run for office?
Our quick concerns were met with immediate and enthusiastic response this week by one of our own — MSU Economist Charley Ballard, editor of the Center’s Michigan Scorecard. Charley likes much of what he sees in the Reform Michigan Now proposal. Here’s his take…
The proposal would require financial disclosure on the part of legislators, judges, justices, and statewide elected officials. I think that’s real reform, and long overdue.
It would slow down the revolving door between the legislature and the lobbying firms. Real reform.
It would stagger the elections of the Senate, so that only half of Senators would be up for re-election each time. One of the many adverse unintended consequences of term limits is that, basically, the entire Senate gets swept clean every eight years. The factoid that I have heard is that the Senate that takes office in 2011 will have AT MOST only a handful of members who have ever before served in the body. Thus, the erasure of institutional memory caused by term limits is even more profound now than it would otherwise be. Staggering of Senate terms is real reform.
It would allow for no-reason absentee ballots. Real reform.
It would require a paper trail for elections. Real reform.
From my perspective, however, the most important feature of the RMGN initiative is the attempt to eliminate gerrymandering of legislative districts. Elimination of gerrymandering is not a panacea. But I really believe that it is the most important single reform that we could possibly undertake. Now, of course we can argue about the details of this particular proposal. You refer to the attempt to ensure that four Senate districts and nine House districts are quite competitive. However, if the members of the commission proceed according to the spirit of the initiative, I believe there could be a general increase in the degree of competitiveness (i.e., increased competitiveness would not be restricted to those 13 districts). The initiative includes the following phrase: “The people of the State of Michigan hereby find and declare that partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts in Michigan has led to non-competitive and unfair elections, less accountability and more partisanship in government, and the corruption and conflicts of interest caused when elected officials create their own districts…”
You mention that the financial savings would be no more than a “wee drop in the bucket”. You’re right. The estimate I have heard is that this might save $30 million per year, which is certainly small relative to the state budget. On the other hand, $30 million is $30 million more than zero. Basically, this initiative is about process, rather than policy. But I believe that we can’t have much hope of getting better policies if we are stuck with a corrupted process.
Not only does the RMGN initiative not deal with budgetary issues, it also doesn’t try to tackle term limits. Over time, I believe that the Michigan public can be educated about the problems of term limits, but they aren’t there yet. If a relaxation of term limits had been added to this initiative, it would have run the risk of sending all of the good stuff down to defeat.
