What the heck is a Con-Con and why should you care?

What if we could burn the rules of how Michigan operates and start all over again?

Well, we can.

It’s called a Constitutional Convention.

And voters this November will weigh in on whether to have a Constitutional Convention for the first time in a half century.

We can have a Constitutional Convention. But do we want to? That question is the subject of a debate that will be taped today at Detroit Public Television. It will premiere in an Internet broadcast right here in this e-newsletter next Thursday, April 22. Con-Con proponent John Logie, the former mayor of Grand Rapids, will debate Con-Con critic Bob LaBrant, senior vice president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

Given all the daily pressures of life, why should you even care?

Because the Michigan Constitution impacts all of our lives every day. It determines how old we have to be before we can drink a beer in a bar or vote. It determines who can get married and what kinds of research scientists can legally perform. It sets many of the rules for how your taxes are determined and how the government spends those dollars.

To set the stage for the debate we’ll broadcast next week, we encourage all Michigan voters to spend a few moments with the Citizen Research Council’s excellent new guides on the state constitution.

CRC’s guides contain a wealth of detail useful information for citizens and purveyors of cocktail party trivia (provided you are of constitutionally mandated legal age, of course).

Here are some of our favorite constitutional tidbits from those CRC guides:

History suggests it’s about time. Voters last approved a Con-Con in spring 1961. That was 53 years after the last Con-Con resulted in the 1908 version of the state constitution.

Hot-button social issues could dominate a new Con-Con. As CRC notes, a Con-Con “would be expected to address several divisive issues concerning individual rights, issues that were not controversial when the last state Constitutional Convention was convened 47 years ago if, indeed, they were issues at all.” Voters banned same-sex marriage in 2004 – it would surely come up again in a Con-Con. Voters banned many affirmative action programs in 2006 – it would surely come up again in a Con-Con. Voters approved stem cell research in 2008 – it would surely come up again in a Con-Con. So would public funding of abortions and the age-old question of Michigan’s death penalty.

After hotly debating all those social issues, you have to wonder whether Con-Con delegates would have any energy left for questions regarding the structure of government – questions that arguably have much more impact on Michigan’s economy and competitiveness than all those social issues.

The 1963 Constitution has been amended 31 times by voters and the legislature.

A quick glance at some of the other approved Constitutional amendments since 1963:

• Prohibit direct or indirect aid to non-public schools (1970).
• Authorize creation of the state lottery (1972).
• Eliminate sales tax on food and prescription drugs (1974).
• Courts can deny bail in some violent crime cases (1978).
• Increase the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21 (1978).
• Headlee Amendment limits on taxes and state government spending (1978)
• Term limits for legislators, governor, secretary of state, and attorney general (1992)
• Limits on criminal appeals (1994).
• Proposal A school funding shift from property to sales taxes (1994)

Some of the failed attempts to amend the Constitution since ‘63:

• Remove prohibition against public support for private schools (1978 & 2000).
• Tax shift proposals – reducing income or property taxes and increasing sales taxes (1980, ’81, ’89)
• Remove the prohibition against a graduated income tax (1968, ’72, and ’76).

Come back next week to watch the Con-Con debate.