LANSING ? House Republicans are holding up job creation in Michigan as part of a political game to get former Alticor CEO Dick DeVos elected governor, an angry Gov. Jennifer Granholm told reporters on Friday, when she threw down the gauntlet challenging the House to pass a major portion of her jobs program this week.

If it doesn’t, Granholm said she will go across the state to tell the public that Republicans care more about legislation on the state’s potato commission than on building jobs. It’s time, she said, for House members to “get off their duff” and act.

At a Thursday meeting with House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi), Granholm said she asked him to move the bill this week, and she said DeRoche said he was willing to move “a bill.” Granholm said she now holding him to account.

A House Republican spokesperson said Granholm’s criticism and challenge were in part a reaction to a recent poll showing her job approval rating slip below 50 percent. But asked if she thought Republicans were stalling action in part to build up the candidacy of GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, she said, “Yes, I do.” Republicans are focusing more on criticizing her and trying to build up their party than build up the state, she said.

Granholm said the Republican-controlled Senate had passed part of the jobs package – that would allow for securitization of the state’s tobacco settlement funds to finance new developments in technology industry – months ago and the House had not acted in response.

The proposal was part of her package that included a change in the state’s business taxes. Granholm had called initially for a bonding proposal that would allow the state to invest in new high tech corporations.

The Senate trimmed that proposal when it passed its measure in June and took out a provision for direct investment in corporations. The House in response prepared HB 5048, which would securitize part of the state’s tobacco settlement revenues, but that bill remains on the House floor.

Not only would a securitization or bonding proposal help develop jobs in the state, the 2005-06 budget agreement anticipates $33 million in revenue from the securitization so action is needed on two fronts, Granholm said.

Speaking as state Republicans were beginning to gather on Mackinac Island for their biennial party conference, Granholm said when the party “finished their fancy party” they needed to complete action on the legislation.

House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) said he was surprised by the governor’s attack given the work done at a meeting Monday and the promise to return to the table on Tuesday when Granholm was on Mackinac Island.

DeRoche said the House agrees action is needed on business and a jobs proposal, but said the governor’s original plans had no political viability. The House will pass the tobacco securitization proposal, he added, when the Senate deals with the business tax plan it has already passed.

The governor opposes the plan, which provides a credit for personal property taxes, cuts the rate and retains the ultimate elimination of the tax by 2010.

While criticizing House Republicans, Granholm praised the Senate and Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) for acting on the securitization/bonding part of the proposal.

She also acknowledged that some action was delayed because of work on the 2005-06 budget, but the budget agreement has been reached, she said. Moreover, she said repeatedly, it has been nearly eight months since she first laid out the proposal in her 2005 State of the State address.

State officials face a deadline, she said, and it is the deadline that unemployed workers face when their bills are due and they have to consider leaving the state to seek out work.

“They need to exercise leadership,” she said. And “if they do not, I will go to every corner of this state and force them to explain” why they have not acted.

Asked if the tax cut proposal the House passed in August couldn’t be considered part of its plan to boost jobs, Granholm said the tax cut was “utterly irresponsible” and would blow a hole in the 2005-06 budget.

A poll released Thursday by the Lansing firm of EPIC/MRA did show Granholm’s job approval had slipped below 50 percent, but her spokesperson said at the time that the governor was more focused on bringing jobs to the state than on polls.

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