Avoiding State Government Shutdown Was Ugly,
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Details are emerging about the scene in Lansing last Sunday night and the picture is a nasty one.
And it may get nastier and uglier.
The outcome is still uncertain.
Anti-tax ideolgues, rightly called "extremists" by the governor, continued their threats against any legislator who voted for any tax increase. We will never know which representatives courageously voted their consciences, or which ones caved in to thug-like bullying.
The only way the state was saved, temporarily, from shutdown, and a national black eye, was by one vote -- from Lt. Gov. John Cherry.
A Republican senator reportedly hissed "weasel" at a Democrat who voted for tax increases.
The cameras of some media representatives were seized and film destroyed. Why? They shot pictures of the voting board showing which way legislators voted. Apparently that is against the rules.
Somebody's twisted rules.
Good Lord, is this a fascist country?
What have we come to?
Intimidation of legislators by Leon Drolet of the Michigan Taxpayers Association and other right-wing ideologues continues, and recalls may be launched against the governor and legislators -- eight Republican and 13 Democrats --who had the temerity to vote "yes" on tax increases.
A guy we always admired and thought was a great physician and would be a responsible legislator, Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who won a tough contentious campaign against State Rep. Carl Williams a couple of years ago, issued a statement that said: "I voted no on these tax increases as the cost to our families is simply too great."Sen. Kahn said he "received a tremendous amount of contact from people in our area urging me to oppose additional taxes."
However, many other legislators said the main thrust of contacts they received from voters was to come to agreement and avoid a government shutdown.
How much, really, will the proposed tax increases cost? State Treasurer Robert Kleine says the higher income taxes and sales taxes on 23 service categories would cost a family of four with income of $50,000 a year about $157 a year in income taxes and $50 in service taxes.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said even with the income tax increase Michigan would be the fourth lowest among states levying income taxes.
So it appears that the cost of the tax increases to keep Michigan going is a non-issue, or a purely political issue.
What would the cost be of a government shutdown? Of more bad publicity for Michigan? Of companies shunning this state for years as a state that can't agree even to keep basic services going?
I was there in the State Legislature when the Republican Senate shut down Michigan's government in 1959.
It was called "Payless Paydays."
It was ugly, and damaging, and costly.
In 1962 the Republicans gained the governorship through an amazingly charismatic individual -- George Romney -- (Mexican born, by the way for you Granholm born-in-Canada detractors).
But Romney bailed out two years later to seek the Presidency and was unfairly sunk by a comment that he had been "brainwashed" about the Vietnam War.
If the Republicans are trying to regain the governorship by trying to sink the state and prove incompetency of Democrats, they may be successful.
But they will not be acting in the tradition of George Romney, who was collaborative, and bipartisan, and a highly successful governor of Michigan. As was his successor, Bill Milliken.
Such a move will not be in the best interest of Michigan, however. It will only prove the destructiveness of hyper-partisanship and will cost us all much in the end.
Michigan Republican Chair Saul Anuniz has issued this statement: "Mark Brewer and the Democrats are trying to "imply" this was a bi-partisan deal. The numbers speak for themselves:
"We only lost 6 votes on both of the tax votes.
"There are 148 legislators in the House and Senate -- and a Democrat Governor.
Sixty-nine Republicans voted NO
Six Republicans voted YES
Sixty seven Democrats voted YES
Six Democrats voted NO
"Governor Granholm and the Democrats promised more spending programs and that government would do more without raising taxes? The taxpayers of Michigan ignored the realities and heard the rhetoric. The tax and spend Democrats delivered."
What, really, would the cost be? A few hundred dollars is peanuts to people making $60,000 or more a year. What value do we place on having an adequately funded state government providing a full range of services?
Does five dollars a week, ten dollars a week, twenty bucks a week, really make that much difference to people with good jobs? Many spend more than that on lottery tickets, beer, cigarettes, or at the casinos.
So, you get the idea. Powerful forces in our state would rather shut down the state, damaging Michigan's reputation and lowering the state's credit rating even more than it already has been, than approve any deal that might cost a few bucks.
Does the word anarchy apply here?
I think it smacks heavily of anarchy, of nihilism, -- of refusal to fund government -- of an oligarchy of greed.
What happened in Lansing last Sunday night is not only obviously action tantamount to that of a banana republic but it may be against the Michigan Constitution, put in place in 1963 under Romney's leadership.
Article IV, Sec. 11 of the Constitution states that legislators "shall not be questioned in any other place for any speech in either house." The same provision was replicated from Art. V, Sec. 8 of the 1908 Constitution. Wiser heads like our Michigan forefathers and George Romney foresaw that men of good will might face such undemocratic challenges as arose in Lansing last weekend when they did the duty for which they were elected.
The Constitution is a law, I believe, and violating it therefore would be illegal. Some of the brightest lawyers in the country are in Michigan. Why can't they prevent illegal actions? Are laws suspended for anti-tax extremists? If anyone intimidates a merchant, bank clerk or dentist they would be arrested, wouldn't they? Do we have a government of laws, or of men? Why can't we protect our legislators regardless of party who are being hampered in performance of their duties?
I urge Sen. Kahn and others in both parties in the Legislature to consider the consequences of their actions as the countdown begins toward another shutdown Nov. 1. Collaboration is certainly preferable to further contamination of the state's reputation. Isn't it?
You call the shot. Your're the voters. Let's hear from you.###
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