The calendar for the 2012-13 school year began on Aug. 6 and stretches all the way to June 15. Has Michigan finally and dramatically expanded the number of days that students will spend in public school classrooms? And therefore ended an era when a post-Labor Day start and varying degrees of snowfall could result in […]
Peter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Analysis: Northern Michigan rules the House for 2013
Northern Michigan has miles of pristine Great Lakes shoreline, wineries of growing renown, the Porcupine Mountains, M-119, M-22 and the world famous Mystery Spot. What it doesn’t have much of these days are Democrats filling the region’s seats in the state House of Representatives. In November 2008, Democrats collected 190,000 votes in securing seven districts […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Election 2012: GOP House eyes appeal to conservative base
In the 12 months since House Republicans passed the bulk of Gov. Rick Snyder’s economic agenda, they have: * Spurned Snyder’s call to establish a state-run health insurance exchange, per the federal Affordable Care Act, in the hope that the U.S. Supreme Court might declare the whole thing unconstitutional. Close, but no cigar. But following […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Democrats bloody one another in redrawn House districts
Election year 2012 has started out well for Republicans now in control of the 110-seat Michigan House of Representatives. House Republicans managed to dispatch four Democratic incumbents without having to field a viable challenger, send a piece of mail or run a radio or TV ad. As incumbent legislators are re-elected at a 90 percent-plus […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Gov. Rick Snyder misses big opportunities in 2011-12
Determined to measure their work against the bipartisan legislative train wrecks of past years, Republicans who run the Legislature are pretty close to their goal of closing up shop for the summer by the end of the week (June 1). That’s three weeks ahead of last year when they overhauled the business tax code and […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
The poison-pill politics of the personal property tax
Michigan residents trust local government far more than they do state government, according to the latest survey released Wednesday by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. Nearly twice as many say they seldom or never trust state government than those who say they seldom or never trust local government. Municipal employees […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Republicans play to win; Democrats play to pout
In 1983, Michigan Republicans secured a two-seat majority in the state Senate thanks to the recall of two Democratic senators from southeastern Michigan. They’ve been running the Michigan Senate ever since. After the 2008 elections, Michigan Democrats had assembled a 20-seat margin in the Michigan House, thanks to the second of two successive national wave […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Hey Grandpa, how about a little help?
A 5-year-old child born to a mother who has exceeded 48 months on cash assistance was being reared in destitution before the state yanked $5,000 in annual welfare benefits. A 75-year-old residing in a nursing home, meanwhile, receives $80,000 in Medicaid-funded care. Not that future fiscal choices should favor the young at the expense of the old, […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Legislators want to run, not pay for, Mich. universities
Spring budget treks to the State Capitol by the presidents of Michigan’s public universities weren’t always this pointless. When lawmakers appropriated half the money or more that universities spent for operations, it paid for presidents to express gratitude to the veteran legislators whose long careers were built on protecting the interests of their favored (hometown) […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Run government like a business? If only.
Back in the day, the craftier veteran legislators would pay the monthly lease on their automobiles with campaign checks they collected from lobbyists steering client political action committees. As their meals were generally covered by those same lobbyists, a Michigan legislator’s expenses could be handled with minimal out-of-pocket sacrifice. Which was good since into that […]
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