David Hecker
President

Lois Lofton Doniver Secretary-Treasurer

Louise Somalski
Legislative Coordinator

November, 2006

Links to current Advocacy Campaigns
may be found in the Legislative Action Center

Victory for the Governor! Victory to the Dems!

In the General Election, Governor Granholm won by receiving over two million more votes than any other gubernatorial candidate in Michigan history. Her comparatively big win helped House Democrats win a 58-52 majority.

Unofficial voter turnout numbers have the state hitting an all-time-voter-turnout high with roughly 53.4 percent of the state's electorate showing up at the polls, a number that is higher than the 2002 election cycle, which got 47.4 percent of voters to the polls.

For the third major election in a row, Michigan voters have set a turnout record. Roughly 3.8 million of the 7.18 million registered voters, voted this election cycle. In the last off-year election cycle in 2002, 32 million voted.

With a record turnout for a gubernatorial year, Ms. Granholm set a record for the most votes ever cast for the state's chief executive at 2,142,166 and winning over 56 percent of the vote. It was also the first time a gubernatorial candidate broke the two million vote mark. The governor's plurality of over 533,000 votes was the most for a Democrat in over two decades (the 878,000-vote plurality in 1986 by Governor James Blanchard).

The county tabulation showed the governor also won 30 more counties than she did four years ago, including a sweep of the Upper Peninsula and winning Macomb County, which had become a nationally-known bellwether locale of so- called Reagan Democrats, with 53 percent of the vote. She lost Macomb County in 2002, winning a little under 48 percent of the vote, and had lost six of the 15 UP counties that year.

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What will be on the Lame Duck Agenda?

Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) outlined the top six issues he wants to get resolved in the few remaining weeks of the lame duck legislative session, and three of the issues are ones that Republicans and Democrats have butted heads on for quite some time.

The three top issues are certain to be: school employee health insurance reform; replacement of the Single Business Tax; and welfare reform.

School Employee Health Care

Four AFT Michigan bills that would allow school districts to pool resources and shop around for employee health insurance benefits (SB 0895, SB 0896, SB 0897 and SB 0898) have been in the House for a year. Senator Sikkema is hopeful that the bills, which would save districts $573 million over three years without any loss of benefits, will make some headway.

With revenues again threatening to under cut the budget, particularly with projected shortages in the school aid budget, Governor Granholm stated last week that she is open to changes in teacher health care and pension programs. (An internal Senate Fiscal Agency estimate indicated the school aid fund could fall another $160 million this fiscal year, meaning a total potential shortage of $280 million.)

Single Business Tax Replacement

The Single Business Tax, and the $1.9 billion it produces, is set to expire on December 31, 2007. Senator Sikkema likes a plan that would get rid of the personal property tax and the Single Business Tax. The Governor insists that any new tax be revenue neutral, and that the plan she proposed last year that shifted several hundred million in tax burdens from manufacturers to insurance and financial institution companies should be the starting point for negotiations.

The Governor will present her proposed Single Business Tax replacement, called the Michigan Business Tax, to the Senate Finance Committee November 29 the goal that the lame duck legislature will pass it before this session ends in December.

Her new proposal will be based on compensation and geared it more to profits. She also said she wants substantial relief for personal property taxes.

The Governor wants action now because the current legislative body created the looming hole in the budget by stepping up the Single Business Tax repeal by two years, and it should be responsible for the replacement. The state needs to move quickly to remove the uncertainty and to give the state and businesses time to adjust to the new tax structure before it becomes effective January 1, 2008.

Michigan Merit Awards Program

The Governor also wants the lame-duck session to complete action on her proposal of a revised Merit Scholarship Program contained in Senate Bill 1335 (already passed the Senate). Briefly, her proposal would award $4,000 (or $1,000 per year) to students attending a four-year college who perform well on the ACT. Those who do not do well on the test but who complete two years of college with a minimum grade point average of 2.5 would also receive the scholarship.

Representative Andy Dillon (D-Redford) recently introduced House Bill 6594 that would change the scholarship program to a loan program starting with eleventh graders in the 2008 - 2009 school year. Students who attend Michigan colleges and stay in the state after graduation could apply for their debt to be waived. If they left the state, they would have to repay the $2,500 loan from the state. To date, this bill has not been taken up by the House Appropriations Committee.

The Governor has stated that if the single business tax and Merit scholarship are not completed in the lame duck session, they will be first priorities for a new Legislature with a Democratic-controlled House.

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Major House and Senate Leadership Set

The Senate Democrats elected leadership:

The House Democrats elected leadership:

The House Republicans elected leadership:

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Dems Sweep State Education Boards

The Democratic candidates, without exception, won each of the eight education-related board races. Winners include:

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Proposal Battles Lost

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Michigan Merit Exam Ready This March

The Michigan Department of Education has announced that it will administer the new Michigan Merit Exam next spring, which will include a free ACT test for high school juniors. The state received federal approval to replace the MEAP test with the Michigan Merit Exam to measure Adequately Yearly Progress in the federal No Child Left Behind Act on November 1.

This new state assessment was signed into law by Governor Granholm last year to replace the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) assessments at the high school level. Implementing the Michigan Merit Exam means that all eleventh graders will take the new state assessment next March. It will provide students with a regular ACT score report that they can use to apply to a college or university.

Students will also be able to use the Michigan Merit Exam to qualify for a Michigan Merit Award scholarship to help defray their costs in attending a state university, community college or a technical or trade school.

The Michigan Merit Exam is made up of the national ACT and Work Keys tests in mathematics and reading, plus additional tests created here in Michigan in the areas of mathematics, science, and social studies.

Michigan Merit Exam testing is divided into three parts. The ACT will be administered on March 13, 2007, while the Work Keys and Michigan mathematics tests will be administered on March 14, 2007. The Michigan science and social studies tests will be given in one session on March 14, 15, or 16. Make-ups for these tests are scheduled for exactly two weeks later.

The State Board of Education approved cut scores for the new test that are statistically similar to those for last year's pilot test given last spring. The Michigan Merit Exam next spring will not be based on the new high school content expectations that were recently approved by the Board. Cut scores for 2008 and beyond will be revised to reflect the new content expectations and new material in the Michigan Merit Exam.

bk:opeiu42aflcio

Lobby Day 2007 Wednesday, April 18 Lansing Center, Lansing, Michigan The Return to Appointments with Your Legislators! Bus Transportation from Detroit and Northern Michigan Areas Provided

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94th Michigan State Legislature

2007 Senate
21 Republicans - 17 Democrats

2007 Michigan House of Representatives
58 Democrats - 52 Republicans

bk:opeiu42aflcio: November 28, 2006

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