LANSING – With about six weeks to go until the 2009-10 fiscal year begins, Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) says the sides seem stuck in negotiations.
“We’re kind of at a standstill,” he told Gongwer News Service in an interview. “I think we’re just hung up on the philosophy: Republicans’ refusal to consider revenues and the governor’s refusal to cut as deeply as they want to cut.”
Prusi has participated in recent weekly meetings of the Legislative Quadrant in the weeks since the House and Senate passed widely different budget bills. Thursday’s meeting was cancelled.
The substance of those meetings between the four legislative leaders and Gov. Jennifer Granholm has largely been kept secret. There have been reports of possible proposals Granholm has made in those meetings, but Mr. Prusi said nothing seems to have any traction.
“I don’t think anything’s been ruled out, other than the beer tax and a few of the other items, but we have not really gotten anywhere near solid discussions on any of that stuff,” he said.
A spokesperson for Granholm, keeping with the governor’s standing position to remain silent on budget negations, declined to comment on any of the possible revenue proposals Granholm might have made.
Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said it is inaccurate to describe talks as at a standstill.
“I believe there’s been an exchange of proposals between the players,” he said. “The back and forth continues, and as long as there’s a back and forth, I would say progress is going to be made.”
Senate Republicans know the process is one of negotiation and are open to looking at tax changes, but not general tax increases, and if Granholm has tax proposals, then the Democratic-led House should pass them, Marsden said. Senate Republicans continue to insist on a plan that relies on cutting spending.
Bishop has called on Granholm to make public her revenue proposals so taxpayers understand the choice facing them between tax increases and the $900 million in spending cuts Senate Republicans passed. But Prusi said he saw no reason for Granholm to do so now.
Prusi said he and the Senate Democratic caucus support Granholm’s longstanding proposed elimination of tax loopholes as a way to raise some of the revenue that the state needs.
“We see no way to address our priorities without putting some of those revenue issues up on the table, not general tax increases certainly, but nibbling around the edges of the (tax) expenditure side,” he said.
THE YEAR SO FAR: Prusi said he is disappointed with the decision of the Republican-controlled Senate not to act on bills that would extend federal unemployment benefits. The House has passed bills, and there are similar ones introduced in the Senate.
The House bills (HB 4785 and HB 4786 ) are pending in the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee. Businesses object to higher unemployment taxes, but jobless workers in the state are also calling for the additional assistance.
“It’s beyond me why the majority sits on that,” Prusi said, citing the state’s 15 percent unemployment rate.
Positive legislation this year included the “Hire Michigan First” bills ensuring preference for Michigan-based companies in state contracting and the foreclosure moratorium, Prusi said.
In his nearly eight months since taking over as minority leader after U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) resigned to take his seat in Congress, Mr. Prusi said he has sought to let rank-and-file Democratic members drive issues, as opposed to the leader’s office.
ELECTIONS: Prusi faces a full political plate. Not only are Democrats trying to keep Schauer’s former Senate seat in a November 3 special election, they also will in 2010 again try to break the Republican stranglehold on the Senate, which they have held since 1984.
While acknowledging that Republicans, who suffered a crushing defeat in the 2008 elections, have found new energy in opposing Democrats’ national efforts to pass health insurance reform, Prusi said the political scales would tip many times between now and November 2010.
And the demographic shifts that have boosted Democrats this decade continue to move in the party’s favor, Prusi said.
Short-term, Prusi said Democrats will work feverishly to help Rep. Martin Griffin (D-Jackson) win the special election in Schauer’s old seat, the 19th Senate District. Prusi didn’t disagree with the notion that conventional wisdom in Lansing holds that former Rep. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek) has the edge, but he warned against counting out Griffin.
“There’s too many people ready to put a Mike Nofs sign up in the parking lot out here,” he said.
In the governor’s race, Prusi said he has not endorsed a candidate. He said as the Democratic leader in the Senate, he didn’t want to be seen as driving caucus support for a candidate.
HIS FUTURE: Prusi must leave the Senate after 2010 because of term limits. He said after serving in the House from 1995-2000 and the Senate since 2003, he’s probably held all the elected offices he wants to hold.
“I may still want to stay around the process, work for Democratic candidates, Democratic issues,” he said. “As long as I’ve got some energy – and I’ll have plenty of time.”
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