Broad Michigan ballot proposal worries Republicans
by Tim Martin | The Associated Press Sunday June 15, 2008, 2:11 PM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A potential ballot proposal targeting the November election is rattling some of Michigan’s political establishment, especially the Republican side.
A group called Reform Michigan Government Now, which says it wants to streamline government, has taken a lengthy list of proposals and packaged them into one big offering. The proposal would change aspects of state government’s legislative, judicial and executive branches, rewriting a large chunk of the Michigan constitution.
The number of state lawmakers would be reduced, along with their pay and benefits. The way boundaries are drawn for legislative districts would change. Two state Supreme Court justice positions would be eliminated. And that’s just the start of the proposed changes that the group wants to put before voters.
Details of ballot proposal
• The state Senate would drop from 38 members to 28. The House would drop from 110 members to 82. An “independent nonpartisan commission” would handle redistricting.
• Pay would be reduced for lawmakers, judges, the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general. Benefits would be cut or capped at the level allowed for civil service employees.
• The Michigan Supreme Court would be reduced from seven justices to five. The two shortest-tenured justices who would lose their seats under terms of the proposal, Stephen Markman and Robert Young Jr., were both nominated by Republicans.
• The Michigan Court of Appeals would downsize from 28 members to 21. Ten judges would be added at the circuit court level.
• Lawmakers would have to wait at least two years to become lobbyists after leaving office.
• Lawmakers would have to disclose information about their finances.
The Associated Press
The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party has criticized the proposal. The Michigan Democratic Party issued a statement supportive of the proposal but hasn’t said if it is involved in the campaign.
Ballot proposal organizers, who aren’t required to file a campaign finance report until later this summer, so far haven’t said who’s paying their bills or how much money they’ve raised. That makes it harder to judge whether the proposal has a shot to make the ballot.
The campaign is running short on time. Supporters must turn in more than 380,000 valid voter signatures by July 7 to qualify for the ballot. They’d also need state election officials to approve the form of their petitions.
But Dianne Byrum, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said it is “our intent and hope” to make the ballot.
“I will agree this is very comprehensive but it boils down to one word: change,” said Byrum, a former Democratic leader in the state Legislature. “People in Michigan believe government is broken.”
Many of the proposed changes have either been formally introduced or discussed for years by some who want to change government.
The Legislature would remain full-time and term-limited, but it would shrink. The Senate would be reduced from 38 seats to 28, while the House would go from 110 to 82. The pay raise lawmakers gave themselves in 2002 would be rolled back. Lawmakers also would have to disclose personal financial information and be out of office for at least two years before they could become lobbyists.
A nonpartisan panel would be appointed to handle legislative redistricting, a task now dominated by whichever political party happens to be in control at the time.
The Michigan Supreme Court, now with seven justices, would be trimmed to five seats. The Michigan Court of Appeals would be reduced from 28 judges to 21. Salaries would be cut 15 percent. But 10 judges would be added to local level circuit courts.
The governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state would have their salaries trimmed. The number of state departments would be capped at 18, which is the current number established but two under the constitutional limit. Several state boards and commissions could be eliminated through the proposal.
Voters would be able to get absentee ballots without having to give a reason, one of several changes proposed to the state’s election system.
The Michigan Republican Party attacked the ballot proposal last week in a YouTube video release, saying it’s an attempt by liberal Democrats to control the court system and hijack the state constitution. The two Supreme Court justices who would lose their seats, for example, were nominated by Republicans.
“This petition completely rewrites Michigan’s constitution,” state Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis said in the video release. “It could take away your state legislator, give more power to unelected bureaucrats putting control of the courts in the hands of ambulance-chasing trial lawyers.”
Anuzis said the lengthy petition might sound good on the surface, but the devil is in the fine print.
“Who’s going to read this before signing it?” Anuzis asked. “I’ve seen Michelin maps of Europe that were smaller and easier to read.”
Byrum said it’s a “fair proposal” that doesn’t give one political party an advantage over the other. She notes the proposal contains ideas previously floated by both Republicans and Democrats.
Hastings resident Joe Lukasiewicz, leader of the Reform Michigan campaign, was a key player in the unsuccessful 2006 effort to abolish the state Senate and move to a unicameral legislature. He said the 2008 ballot proposal has support from Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer is far more accepting of the proposal than Anuzis.
“The petition contains a number of innovative, important reforms and would give the voters of Michigan the opportunity to help bring much needed government reform to Lansing,” Brewer said in a statement.
The Associated Press asked Michigan Democratic representatives late last week and Sunday whether the party was actively involved in the campaign or supporting it financially.
A spokeswoman for Kalamazoo billionaire Jon Stryker, who helped fund some Democratic causes in 2006 and likely will again this election cycle, said Stryker and his Coalition for Progress political action committee are not involved in the effort.
Some Lansing lobbyists suggest the broad changes proposed by the petition would best be left for a constitutional convention, where the document that dictates much of government’s structure would be redrafted. Michigan voters will decide in 2010 whether to have a convention.
But there hasn’t been a constitutional convention since the current version was approved in 1963 and there’s no guarantee there will be one anytime soon. Voters rejected the idea of a constitutional convention in 1978 and 1994.
“The people of Michigan want real change in the way business is done in Lansing,” Brewer said in a statement. “This proposal gives voters the chance to enact that change at the grass-roots level rather than waiting for that change.”
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Associated Press writer David Eggert contributed to this report
