Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on January 23, 2008

Click here to view bill details.

Senator Sanborn’s statement is as follows: With the start of a new year, it’s time for the Governor to make it clear that she is prepared to do the right thing to overcome the challenges facing Michigan by working with us to advance sound policies that will help turn Michigan around. That is why my resolution, which just passed, calls for the Governor to openly and honestly discuss the continued economic decline of Michigan in her upcoming State of the State address. The challenges we face as a state are real and they are staggering. As a result, the time for platitudes and pipe dreams are gone. The Governor must recognize that she has no excuse for continuing to ignore the plight of Michigan’s families who want jobs rather than handouts and tax increases to pay for them. As a result, the Governor must use her State of the State speech to clearly lay out how she plans to start bringing all types of jobs back to Michigan immediately. She must also reassure the job providers who are currently here that she will no longer pursue policies that are openly adversarial to businesses and growth, something that she has failed to do. It is time for the state to start to deliver on the promises it has made to the citizens of Michigan, even if it means making tough decisions that draw the ire of some of the groups that exert extreme amounts of influence here in Michigan. Later this month, the Governor will have the opportunity to assure the citizens of Michigan that she is serious about repairing Michigan’s economy. While this will admittedly be no easy task, especially as businesses and individuals start to feel the impact of tax increases in a state that is already in recession. You know, recently on one of the TV news programs, I had the opportunity to hear former Fed Governor Wayne Angel speak, and he spoke to a group of people and said something that was quite obvious to them, “Everyone knows that you do not raise taxes in a recession.” I repeat that important point: Everyone knows that you do not raise taxes in a recession. Michigan has been in a single-state recession for years and we just raised taxes not once, but twice on the citizens of the state of Michigan. People, we are still getting it wrong by raising taxes in a recession. It is the task that she promised the citizens of Michigan that she would undertake in exchange for their vote. I hope that she takes this task seriously and that she offers us truthful and realistic set of proposals that we can consider in the near future in her State of the State address.

Senator Scott’s statement is as follows: There is an old Congolese saying: “Sitting is being crippled.” Many of you pride yourselves on your many legislative activities in the Legislature, in your districts, and throughout the state, yet when it comes to my insurance bills, there you sit crippled, incapacitated, and lifeless. Meanwhile there are thousands of Michigan residents putting their financial futures at risk by driving without insurance and living in homes whose structures and contents are unprotected. My message today is to stand up and take action. Break out of your inertia and recognize the rights of the people of Michigan to purchase financial protection at an honest and decent price. Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you to move my bills.

Senator Gleason’s statement is as follows: I would just like to remind this august body that it was one year ago today that I introduced my legislation in regard to ending the drug immunity here in the state of Michigan. We’ve had a lack of responsible discussion and a lack of advancement of that much-needed legislation. In regard to the news that was spread across our country that nearly $5 billion was dispersed to citizens who have been harmed, some may be even killed by irresponsible drugs being put on the market and being made available to our citizens. In light of that, I’ve been told that our Michigan citizens do have some recourse, some legal resolution. I’m still waiting for the court. If someone would be kind enough to advance the address and the number of the state court that I could ask, my citizens who have been harmed with these drugs, I would like to forward that opportunity to them. I’m very honored and proud to stand here today as the member of the Democratic Party. In regard to the resolution, I think there have been tremendous strides that have been advanced by the administration. She certainly has understood the shortfall of nurses to our state, and she has tried to address that by weighing in and trying to make available programs and offering clinicians to help make Michigan nurses expedite their process through the academic morass. Also I’m very encouraged by the responsible discussions with the community from Marquette trying to incorporate a mine where we can extract precious metals to offer the Upper Peninsula a chance for economic development. We’ve seen in recent times the advancement of the factory in Dundee and with that factory we’ve noticed an increased obligation for academic responsibilities by Michigan citizens. Lieutenant Governor, you have led the Cherry Commission in understanding the shortfall we have seen in Michigan with a lack of college graduates in this state. These and others, there’s transcontinental efforts to bring jobs back to Michigan from foreign lands. I think in the past, the Governor has been responsible in trying to work in a much-needed and much-offered in her person extension of bipartisan action here in these chambers. So I commend the Senator for trying to reinforce what our Governor has done in the past, and we can look forward to next week and the future of once again seeing proposals and responsible obligations met. The challenges are before us all. State of the States are not solely the responsibility of the Governor. We as a legislative body have the responsibility and the opportunity and must meet the challenge to advance responsible legislation in addressing some of these much needed programs that our Michigan citizens need. I think we’ve been quite successful in the past. And in regard, once again, to the single-state recession, I think it would be fool hardy for anyone in this chamber or anyone in the House to suggest that a single-state recession would lead to a tremendous cut by the Fed in the prime interest rate down to 3.5 percent. Actions such as that do not reflect a single-state recession. It signals that our whole country has obligations to be met. We as individuals have an opportunity to join the Governor and her past efforts and her future efforts as well to make sure Michigan’s role in making this state a leading community for investment and entrepreneurial advances are well met. Mr. Lieutenant Governor, I thank you for your efforts on the Cherry Commission in understanding the shortfall in regard to our college graduates, advancing the clinicians needed for the nurses, advancing the cause of job economic growth in the Upper Peninsula, and with the job opportunities offered in southern Michigan in Dundee with the new factory. So I thank you for the opportunity to speak in regard to the resolution. I want to thank the sponsor of the resolution for again reminding all in the chamber that the Governor has spoken to these issues in the past, and we can full look forward to her intentions to do so in the future.

Senator Thomas’ statement is as follows: I was very pleased to join on as a co-sponsor of Senate Resolution No. 143. I am very much looking forward to my twelfth State of the State speech next Tuesday as a member of the Legislature. I must add that through the first eleven, I don’t recall a sitting member of the Legislature telling the sitting Governor what to put into that speech specifically through a resolution. We have broken new ground on this one, but I am pleased and I will take away from this resolution some very important points that I hope that we can all use as an opportunity to bridge the divide that has existed within this chamber and throughout the halls of the Capitol over the past year. This is an opportunity for bipartisanship. This is an opportunity for us all who have family members, neighbors, constituents, and friends who are struggling and suffering in a very, very tough economy. I was very pleased, as I read this resolution, to see the acknowledgement that so much of what we are going through in Michigan does originate beyond our borders. There is a recognition on behalf of this Senate that there are problems in the nation, across the world, in fact, that are contributing to the economic downturn that we have experienced for a very long time here in the state of Michigan. I am very thrilled that this Legislature, that this Senate recognizes the need for both parties to come together to offer comprehensive solutions that will address job loss and economic upturn for the state of Michigan. While there may have been lots of reasons to do such a resolution this morning, I will take away the very clear message and accept the olive branch of bipartisanship offered by the distinguished Senator. I work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to move Michigan forward and to build an economy and a public policy agenda that will work for all of Michigan citizens and create real jobs and real opportunities in this new 21st century economy.

Senator Birkholz’s statement is as follows: With the Senate bills from the Senate energy committee that were just discharged to the floor, I would like to point out to the members that with these bills before us now, we are creating an aggressive RPS standard and providing a foothold to bring renewable energy producers into the state. But we are doing it by requiring state government to purchase increasing amounts of renewable energy according to this schedule: January 1, 2009, 3 percent; 2010, 10 percent; 2020, 20 percent; 2025, 25 percent. The purchase requirement exists only as long as the price of renewable energy is within 5 percent of the price of nonrenewable energy. We are setting up an opportunity by saying if you build, we will buy it. We are telling the renewable companies that the state will lead with this plan. We do not impose a mandate or surcharge on any of our consumers. The other two bills that were discharged requires the utilities to offer green energy and advise their customers of that cost and provide an income tax credit for up to $200 a year to off-set the higher cost to each consumer household of the green energy. Basically, we give the renewables the opportunities to have a foothold in the marketplace in Michigan. We do not give, as was done within the last few hours by the body across the dome, a foothold for the utilities to bill the consumers of our state over $8 billion a year in additional taxes. I ask that you give these bills their due consideration and help us start a new paradigm in this argument.

Senator Whitmer’s statement is as follows: As the Senator who represents Michigan State University, one of the finest universities in the world and one that attracts many international students, I think we have an issue before us that we have got to address and we’ve got to address it quickly. I know there are bills that may do this and there are amendments and there are a lot of people talking, but what we need to do is we need to act. I don’t care whose name is on the fix, but we need to address the problem that we’ve created through our new rules about illegal immigration and the issuance of state driver’s licenses. There are thousands of people at Michigan State University alone, and I would submit, in all 83 counties, who are here legally; who we want to be here; who we want to encourage to come to Michigan to get educated and to work here. We need to make sure that they are not inadvertently hurt because of the new policies that are coming down. I know that illegal immigration is a hot-button issue on the presidential landscape, and that’s something that everyone wants to take a part of and take a stance on, but we do not want to do that so quickly that we are taking rights away from people who are absolutely here 100 percent legally and we want to be here in the state of Michigan. I’m just encouraging this body to act quickly, to do it together, and to fix this problem. There are thousands of students at MSU who need us to do that, and I would submit, a lot more across the whole state of Michigan who we want here and who are here legally.

Senator Cropsey’s statement is as follows: I just wanted to thank the Senator from the 11th District for offering the resolution, Senate Resolution No. 143. I wanted to thank the Senator from the 4th District for making it a bipartisan resolution in asking that all members of the Senate be put on this resolution. This is a very important resolution. We are still in a single-state recession. The national economy saw a tremendous uptake in the economy about three or four years ago. That is now softening and we may very well be going into another national recession. Here in this state, we never came out of the last recession. This is still a continuation of the previous recession. I think it is very important for the Governor to address this issue; to tell us why we have had the problems that we have had, but more importantly, to show us what her vision is on how we get out of this problem. Very frankly, the Senator from the 11th District said very clearly that taxes should not be raised during a recession and we’ve done that twice. We’ve done it to a large extent on the business community of this state—the job providers—giving them even less of an incentive to expand in this state or to locate in this state. One of the things I would like to take a look at, in the resolution in the second Whereas clause, about the third or the fourth sentence, it says, “For the natural resource and mining related sector, the decrease has been 16 percent.” That is talking about the job losses and that was referred to by one of the previous Senators on the mine up in Marquette, or the lack of a mine up in Marquette. This has been in the works now, I believe, for several months, if not two or three years. Now mining is not a new issue in the Upper Peninsula. Mining has been around there ever since before the Europeans came to settle that area. So it’s been there for hundreds of years, but yet we still have not got a final permit for Kennecott to begin mining in the Upper Peninsula. That is a tragedy. I know I talked to the Department of Environmental Quality months ago and they thought at that time it would be a couple of weeks that things would be approved. That was months ago. The DEQ finally gave its approval after a lengthy period of time, and now we have the Department of Natural Resources weighing in and sitting on it. Folks, if we are concerned about jobs in this state, we have to make it friendly for job providers to provide the jobs in this state. By going through such a lengthy process, that is not what you’d call a welcoming sign into the state of the Michigan. We need to streamline the process. It needs to be done and it needs to be done quickly and it needs to be done thoroughly. That has not been done. I call upon the Governor in her State of the State address to tell us how she is going to make sure in the future that her administration is going to handle these applications in a timely process and have it done in a timely process and at the same time protecting our environment.

Senator Cherry’s statement is as follows: I rise to add my voice to that of the Senator from the 23rd District regarding the recent attorney general ruling which limits legal immigrants into our country who have student visas and who have work visas. His ruling prohibits them from getting driver’s licenses and we need to fix that. There are people all across the state who are here legally who are doing work, who are going to school, and all of that needs to be addressed so that they can get their driver’s license. I hope that we can do that within the next few weeks.

Senator Switalski’s statement is as follows: I rise in support and agreement with the previous remarks of Senators Cherry and Whitmer about the importance of correcting the situation we have regarding legal immigrants and driver’s licenses. My wife is a permanent resident alien; she has been here legally for 22 years. She has been working and paying taxes for 22 years and she has to have a driver’s license. She has a driver’s license, but as I understand it, she will not be able to renew her driver’s license. There are people who are here legally and they have to be able to drive. So I hope that we listen closely to what Senator Whitmer said. We don’t really care who sponsors the bill. I’ve already talked with the Secretary of State and she said that this is an important thing that we have to fix. There are people from significant businesses, legal aliens here who are providing jobs to people in Michigan who I understand have just been rejected for driver’s licenses. This is an embarrassment to us. We need jobs; we need people to come in here and open companies and provide jobs for our unemployed. We shouldn’t be telling them, “No, you can’t have a driver’s license.” I know that is not the intent, so people who are complying with our laws, who are here legally, should be able to get driver’s licenses.

Senator Cassis’ statement is as follows: Interestingly and seemingly out of the blue, a discussion about freezing the earned income tax has come about. In fact, I imagine some considerable amount of money has been paid out in order to have a study on this earned income tax credit. Importantly, I was never consulted or talked to about what kind of intentions there might be about freezing the earned income tax. Let me right now be very perfectly clear and clear up any concerns there might be about moving Senate Bill No. 662. As chair of Senate Finance, I have absolutely no intention of bringing forth for a hearing or otherwise Senate Bill No. 662. And let’s remember something that seems to be forgotten. I am the author of Public Act No. 372 of 2006, which put into law the earned income tax. Some may have asked what has changed from last year? Last year, as we all recall, we experienced tremendous stress on our state’s budget—a $1.7 billion shortfall. At that time, it seemed reasonable to at least open up a discussion on delaying another outlay of money which we did not have—somewhere between $132 million and $193 million. With the earned income tax credit, we were looking at just delaying the implementation, not repealing it. No one has lost anything. This has not gone into effect yet. Over the last eight months, all of us have witnessed with some degree of comfort that the pressure on our state’s budget has been quelled. It is in better shape than last year, and that is good news. Also I think this is very important—it is important to me—with the Legislature giving a tax check rebate to some of our biggest corporations, among them the Big 3. It seems only fair and right to give credit checks to the other end of the spectrum—our working poor. That is my intent and debate.