LANSING – Michigan voters will soon have the chance to sign petitions to amend the Constitution to enact a part-time Legislature, allow for automatic referendums on tax increases and to require the state to provide health insurance.
And some voters will be mailed petitions for signature for the part-time Legislature and tax referendum in an experiment to see if circulators can control costs and possible political harassment in trying to gather signatures.
The Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday unanimously approved petitions as to their form for circulation. Approving form does not in any way endorse the petition, and petition circulators would be free to circulate petitions.
To get on the ballot, circulators will have to get signatures from at least 380,126 registered voters by July 7, 2008.
The simplest constitutional proposal, in terms of its length and complexity, will be distributed by the Madison Heights-based group Health Care for Michigan that will require the Legislature to pass laws that assure that all Michigan residents have “affordable and comprehensive health care coverage” using a “fair and cost-effective financing system.” The petition also calls for the Legislature to enact proposals that control health care costs.
Lt. Governor John Cherry, the AARP, labor organizations and a number of religious groups are among those backing the proposal.
Gary Benjamin, a poverty-aid lawyer from Detroit, told reporters that the group is budgeting about $1 million to get the proposal on the ballot and $4 million for a campaign once it is on. The group is trying to raise as many signatures as it can without having to rely on paid circulators, Benjamin said.
Kickoff activities will begin on January 8, with volunteer training on January 12 and actual signature collection to start on January 15 with the presidential primary, Benjamin said.
The state has about 850,000 residents now with no health insurance of any kind and that number is growing because every year an estimated 2 percent of employment related health care is dropped, Benjamin said.
He also said the state totally is spending an estimated $60 billion a year on health care, but as much as $24 billion of that is going into administrative overhead and other non-care related activities.
The Michigan proposal is better than the health insurance plan now in place in Massachusetts, he said, because it requires a cap on costs. The Massachusetts plan or others being debated in other states do not have cost controls and that is forcing those plans to actually drop coverage for individuals.
The part-time Legislature and tax referendum proposals are both organized by attorneys Allan and Greg Schmid of Saginaw.
The part-time Legislature proposal they are fronting differs from that being considered by Clarkston Attorney Henry Woloson because the Schmid plan would make no change to the state’s term-limits proposal. Woloson is considering a plan that would allow legislative members to serve up to 12 years in either the House or the Senate.
Allan Schmid, who has been one the biggest public proponents of term limits, said there was no way his organization would be involved in an effort that changed or eliminated term limits.
The Schmid proposal would have legislative sessions start in March and end July 1, with the option of an additional 20 days in limited special sessions. Legislative committees would be allowed to meet when the Legislature is not in session.
The proposal also requires the governor to submit the budget within three days after the legislative session starts.
The proposal also cuts legislative pay to $40,000 (it is now set at $79,650 for non-leaders with $12,000 in expenses) and would require a cut of 1 percent in pay for each day of absenteeism. It would also ban any pensions, retirement benefits, medical or life insurance after a lawmaker leaves office.
Rep. Jack Hoogendyk (R-Texas Twp.) is already promoting the proposal in his blog, saying if it were approved the public would see improved performance in the Legislature.
The tax referendum proposal would require a statewide election on February 10, 2009, on “each state statute enacted after May 1, 2007” that created a new tax, raised a tax or continued a tax. That would include the new Michigan Business Tax, the increase to the income tax adopted October 1 and the surcharge adopted December 1 to the MBT.
In addition, the proposal would require tax referendums held each general election after a tax proposal was adopted. The proposal would allow a tax to remain in effect until the end of the fiscal year even if the voters rejected.
The proposal also, however, makes a number of changes designed to make it easier to run petition drives for referendums including ending the provision that a referendum petition must include the text of the act in question or that a voter signing the petition indicate what town or county he or she lives in.
In an experiment to both save costs and cut down on the chance of opponents trying to scare signers away, Allan Schmid said the groups are going to run an experiment by mailing both petitions to voters and encouraging them to sign the petitions and return them.
Using databases, the organizers have been able to establish the names and addresses of registered voters in Saginaw and Schmid said that could be extended statewide.
Voters would be mailed instructions, along with petitions, reminding them they would have to sign the petitions as circulators along with the petition itself. Schmid said the group will experiment by mailing first to Saginaw and several other areas. If it proves successful, they will extend the effort statewide, he said.
If not, then the group will turn to both volunteers and paid circulators to gather signatures, Schmid said.
Greg Schmid said he has been involved in efforts to enact a part-time Legislature since 1985 and he thought this had the best chance of succeeding.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: The Canvassers also set the challenge deadline on petition signatures for a proposal to allow for the use of marijuana for medical purposes at 10 days after a sample of 500 names is drawn. The state anticipates drawing the sample about mid-January.
Citizens for Compassionate Care has submitted about 475,000 petition signatures to put the initiated act on the November 2008 ballot. To qualify for the ballot, at least 304,101 signatures must be from registered voters.
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