LANSING – Michigan Senate leaders plan to put the House-passed versions of legislation that could allow the North American International Auto Show to remain at Cobo Center into a conference committee, perhaps as early as Tuesday.

But after a series of conference calls on Monday on the House versions of SB 587 and HB 4998 , Senate Republican leaders said they could not agree to the proposals that would have a regional authority lease Cobo from Detroit rather than own it outright.

The intent of the Senate bills that were sent to the House last month was to provide another opportunity for Detroit’s city council to agree to a proposal that would turn over ownership of the conference center to a regional authority that would then oversee the renovation and expansion of the center.

The Detroit council rejected that plan in February. Then-Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. vetoed the council’s action but the Court of Appeals held the veto was not valid.

But the Senate bills also provided for state aid to go to the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi to expand and hold the auto show if the Detroit council did not approve the transfer by July 1. Officials with the auto show said decisions had to be made quickly on where to locate the show or it could easily be located to Chicago, Los Angeles or another city after 2010.

The House versions of the bills, passed on Thursday, called instead for the center to be leased for up to 30 years to a regional authority to oversee the expansion.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson at the time expressed his opposition to the proposal, and participating in some of the conference calls on Monday did not waver from that opposition.

A spokesperson for Governor Jennifer Granholm said she did not participate directly in the conference calls, but that her administration was still trying to find an acceptable agreement to allow for the auto show to remain in the state.

Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said the version the House approved was a wholesale change to the Senate version and that was unacceptable. The earlier agreement that was reached following an all night session in December, on the last day of the 2007-08 session, was the culmination of five years of talks, he said, and that remained the proposal Senate Republicans back.

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