LANSING – Michigan House Republicans are holding the $1 billion high tech investment package hostage to politics, trying to force Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to give them a cut in the Single Business Tax.

House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) said Thursday the chamber will likely vote this week to send the bills to conference committee, which had always been the plan in the talks he had with the governor and Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming).

The issue of a link between the two proposals was of primary concern when the Senate broke an official tie-bar before returning the securitization package to the House. The Senate plans to vote on a revised business tax cut plan this week, and prepared for that by discharging from Finance Committee the nine bills that make up the House-passed version.

A spokesperson for Granholm said the plan by the House represents nothing more than delay on a critical jobs issue. DeRoche said he was not delaying, but following the original plan of action on the bill.

“The plan all along was to go to conference committee,” he said. “It’s not putting it off because governor’s plan would not have been voted on until November of this year at the earliest.”

And he said the governor was in the room when he and Sikkema agreed to complete the bill through conference committee.

DeRoche said there also was less rush on the securitization bill than on the tax cut because it will work more slowly. “The 21st Century jobs plan will have no effect on the economy this year,” he said. “The most important thing we can do for the economy is to cut taxes. The governor’s been in the way of that.”

In the end, he said either the tax cuts had to be tie barred to the jobs plan or the tax cuts had to reach the governor first.

Granholm spokesperson Liz Boyd harshly criticized delaying action on the securitization proposal, which she said will create high paying jobs that cannot be exported. She noted both the House and Senate had passed the bills by overwhelming margins after committees had reviewed the proposal but said it is obvious DeRoche does not share the governor’s urgency to get a jobs stimulus plan into law.

“The speaker has decided to go down this path on his own,” Boyd said of shuttling the bills to conference committee. “He shared his intention with the governor and the governor is adamantly opposed. There is nothing to confer on. They need to quit dillying and get the bills to the governor’s desk.”

Sikkema spokesperson Ari Adler said the Senate leader supports sending the securitization bills to conference committee. “We’re going to wrap up our tax plan next week so both will be ready to be concurred in by the House and sent to the governor.”

Adler added a decision has not been made on whether to again formally tie the two issues, but said, “The idea that the governor ends up with a securitization plan and a tax plan at the same time, we agree with, but the logistics of how we get there may be a little different.”

Adler said the governor should be pleased that both plans should be completed in the next week or so “because she’s been hounding us for months to give her both issues.”

House Democrats also had pressed for quick House action on the securitization bills. “We believe that we should be voting on the entire jobs package before we leave for the weekend,” said House Minority Leader Diane Byrum (D-Onondaga). “We want to send this bill to the governor’s desk and we want to send it there this afternoon.”

Sikkema gave his caucus a brief overview of the tax plan Thursday, but will not release details until next week. He said it will provide relief beginning in 2006 and combines long-term cuts with reductions in state spending.

Sen. Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit), vice chair of the Finance Committee, expressed concern about taking quick action on the Sikkema plan without any hearings. He contrasted the planned rapid action an a proposal still under wraps to the months of hearings the Legislature gave to Granholm’s tax restructuring proposal that targeted relief to manufacturers and raised taxes on some other businesses.

“The Senate is embarking on one of the most important decisions of this Legislature,” he said. “It could help or hinder economic development; it could help or hinder this state. Now we’re taking the House proposal to the floor without even a hearing.”

The bills in the securitization package are HB 5047, HB 5048, HB 5109, HB 5215, HB 5216, SB 298, SB 359, SB 521 and SB 533.

The business tax package includes HB 4980, HB 5106, HB 5107, HB 5108, HB 5095, HB 5096, HB 5097 and HB 5098.

House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Chris Ward (R-Brighton) gave notice of intent to discharge HB 4768 and HJR I, which represent Granholm’s plan, from the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

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