State of the State speeches are geared to define the governor’s agenda for the coming legislative year. If the speech is a good one, seen as reasonably addressing the challenges of the times, chances are some of the proposals are going to be embraced and enacted. So it was in 2011 with Gov. Rick Snyder’s […]
Peter Luke
A guest author for Bridge Magazine.
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Legislature, Snyder can’t deny public their 2014 crack at Right to Work, tax changes
Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican lawmakers are aiming to funnel reaction to what has been an extraordinary two years of controversial legislation onto the partisan section of the 2014 general election ballot. How negative the reaction is will determine the shelf life of the pro-business agenda they’ve spent two years enacting. The 96th Michigan Legislature […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
On RTW, money talked, GOP answered
Why is a conservative Republican Legislature enacting a pro-business agenda that breaks the mold by embracing Right to Work laws? Because the GOP has the votes in the House and Senate to put it on Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk for his signature. Control all three legs of the stool and you can craft law on […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Give Snyder credit for trying to juggle tax changes
After years of thinking up new ways to attract business with special deals, Michigan appears intent on getting out of the big money incentive game by engineering a tax code in which there is little left to abate. Before it was repealed last year, lawmakers had created some 60 exemptions in a Michigan Business Tax […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Blue Cross getting quite a deal at Capitol
Spend more than $500,000 on lobbying and write nearly $1.2 million in PAC checks in an election cycle, the chances are pretty good that the post-election lame duck legislation you’re seeking is going to be delivered in pretty much the form you expect. So it’s been relatively smooth sailing for Blue Cross Blue Shield of […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Perhaps it’s time to leave constitutional amendments to the Legislature
A few final takeaways from the November election: Representative democracy is generally more effective than direct democracy. In 2010, voter turnout was 43 percent and an older, whiter Michigan electorate wiped out the majority that Democrats had built in the Michigan House in the previous two elections. On Nov. 6, turnout by a younger, more […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Voters endorse a ‘simmer down’ approach to state’s challenges
By a 47-41 margin, respondents in Marketing Resource Group’s fall poll said Michigan was on the right track. The plus 6-point spread in the biannual survey was the largest recorded by the Lansing firm since March 2003, three months into Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s first term. Three months into Gov. Rick Snyder’s term in March 2010, […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Michigan’s ‘supreme’ election is a scandal
Markman, O’Brien, Zahra, McCormack, Johnson and Kelley could be a law firm for all voters know about them, instead of the six party-nominated candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court on the non-partisan section of the Nov. 6 ballot. As a result, too few voters understand, or likely care about, the blatant contradiction in that sentence: […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Snyder’s reinvention plans for Detroit tied up in two ballot props
A local sports page reader, commenting on the lack of attention Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown bid was receiving nationally last week, lamented: “Detroit on the whole has been nationally defined in the cultural consciousness as the ashtray of the United States.” Or it can be defined as tragically beautiful, according to the publicity for two […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Proposal 5 would take political dysfunction in State Capitol to whole new level
Five years ago this week, Michigan lawmakers were hurtling toward their own fiscal cliff as a new budget year loomed with no spending and revenue agreement in sight. A month of legislative chaos marked by a desultory combination of boredom, tension, recrimination and fatigue ended in the early morning of Oct. 1 when lawmakers gave […]
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