Dillon's Choice

The House’s overnight failure on September 21 was “the most frustrating thing I’ve ever witnessed,” said one insider with more than a quarter-century of experience in Lansing. To pick up the pieces, Andy Dillon has three choices: 1) Push through an income tax on partisan lines and spend the next year and a half defending it with more partisan warfare; 2) Go for a lower income tax increase and hope to pick up a handful of GOP votes; 3) Put up a list of serious reforms and cuts (which House Dems have sidestepped so far) as leverage for GOP support for a tax increase. Way back in January, Dillon and Majority Floor Leader Steve Tobocman held a “budget boot camp” inspired by the Center for Michigan. “This isn’t a partisan issue,” Tobocman said then. “Michigan’s fiscal challenges affect all of us, and we’ll only find creative solutions to those challenges if we come together.” Well?