10 issues to watch in Legislature’s “lame-duck” session

Nobody doesn’t like fixing the roads. But can Gov. Snyder and the Legislature agree on how much it will cost and where the money will come from?

Fixing potholes? Extending civil rights protections to gays and lesbians? How about taking over Detroit schools?

Today, 148 Michigan legislators and one freshly re-elected governor are making their wish lists for legislation in the next few months. How to pay for road repairs is a debate almost certain to happen. Beyond that, there is a policy stew of issues that might be addressed, either in the wildly unpredictable nine-day lame duck session before new legislators are sworn in, or in the first few giddy months of a new Legislature in 2015.

Below is a brief guide to issues that may be raised in Lansing soon. In future stories, Bridge will offer deeper analysis of some of these issues as they arise.

ROADS

The issue: Michigan has some of the worst roads in America.

Not coincidentally, Michigan spends less per capita on its roads than any other state in the nation. Michigan spends $174 per person annually on transportation. Our neighbors in Illinois and Ohio each spend $235. Minnesota spends $315.

A majority of the public is willing to pay more in taxes for better roads, according to polling and community conversations sponsored by The Center for Michigan, which publishes Bridge Magazine.

The state doesn’t have $1 billion (the amount Snyder says is needed) lying around in its couch cushions, and there’s little agreement about where to find the money. Snyder has proposed an increase in the gas tax and in auto registration fees, but that will be an even tougher sell in 2015 with additional Tea Party members in the Legislature. That’s one reason Snyder, less than 12 hours after being re-elected, said he would push for road funding in lame duck, with the hopes that term-limited legislators who didn’t want to raise taxes before the election will be willing to do so now.

LGBT PROTECTIONS

The issue: Expansion of civil rights protections under the state’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation.

Currently, it’s legal to fire a worker or deny them housing because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or suspected of those things. Including sexual orientation in the civil rights act would make that illegal, just as it is illegal to do so now because of sex, race, religion, height, weight, national origin, and familial and marital status.

There is some form of LGBT anti-discrimination law in 22 states, though several exclude transgender protections. Midwest states that have laws against LGBT discrimination include Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

Snyder said Wednesday he’d like the Legislature to consider expanding Elliot-Larsen, which is similar to what he has said for the past year.

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD

The issue: Appointment of board members to Detroit Public Schools. The Legislature may give Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan authority to appoint school board members, who are normally elected to office. The Legislature took a similar action in 1999, allowing the mayor to appoint a “reform board” whose only role was to oversee the chief executive officer.

The impetus this time would be to put the mayor in charge, rather than the current board, because the district’s emergency manager, Jack Martin, is expected to leave in January. DPS still has a deficit of about $127 million. But the elected school board intends to vote out Martin in January and regain authority over the school system for the first time since 2009 as well as attempt to evict the reform school district (Education Achievement Authority) from DPS buildings. Snyder told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that he felt the emergency manager had been in DPS “too long.” But he did not say whether that excluded the possibility of handing the keys to the school district to Duggan.

TERM LIMITS

The issue: Expansion or removal of current term limits on legislators.
In 1992, Michigan voters amended the state constitution to cap an individual’s service to three two-year terms in the House and two four-year terms in the Senate. An individual could serve a maximum of 14 years in the Legislature if they are elected to the House and Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville would like to ease term limits in his last nine days in the Legislature.

Changing term limits would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature and a statewide vote.

Fifteen states have some kind of term limits on legislators.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

The issue: Changing the way electoral college votes from Michigan are assigned in presidential elections.

Michigan is among 48 states that give all its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who gets the most votes in the state. Democratic presidential candidates have garnered more votes (and thus all the electoral votes) in Michigan in every presidential election since 1988.

Some state Republican leaders suggest Michigan instead assign electoral votes by congressional district – with the presidential candidate earning the most votes in each district earning an electoral vote, and the candidate getting the most votes overall earning two additional electoral votes.

President Barack Obama, who beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney by over 9 percentage points in 2012, earned the state’s 16 electoral votes. Under the proposed reform, the state’s electoral votes would have been split 9-7 in favor of Romney even though Romney lost by about 450,000 votes.

Two states, Maine and Nebraska, split their electoral votes by congressional district.

Participants at a Michigan Republican Party Convention overwhelmingly supported the concept of splitting the state’s electoral votes in 2013, and Lansing insiders continue to mention the reform - which would likely be at least as explosive as Right to Work legislation in lame duck in 2012 - as a possible issue this lame duck session.

Snyder and Richardville have both expressed little enthusiasm for the issue.

THIRD-GRADE READING

The issue: Improving early literacy by retaining students in third grade who are not proficient in reading. House Bills 5111 and 5144 would retain third graders who are not proficient in reading. There would be numerous other ways for students to advance to fourth grade even after being found not proficient, including by considering a student’s full portfolio of work through the year, a teacher or principal recommendation, or the request of parents. Additional support would be given to students who are having trouble reading, including possible summer reading programs and smaller class sizes.

The current bills do not include funding for the additional reading support.

Florida has a similar policy, but includes funding for additional early literacy specialists.

Snyder told the Detroit Free Press Wednesday that he wants to emphasize third-grade reading proficiency, which he noted is a key indicator of future academic success.

GRADING SCHOOLS

The issue: A parent-friendly grading system for public schools in Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Education currently rates schools on a color-coded system, designating some schools as green, others as lime, yellow, orange, red and purple.

House Bill 5112 would change the accountability system to a more understandable A-F system, with the possibility of adding metrics beyond student test scores into the grading system.

Florida has an A-F grading system similar to what some Michigan legislators are considering.

STANDARDIZED TESTS AND COMMON CORE

The issue: Which test Michigan students will take to measure academic achievement.
Michigan is phasing out the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) test for a test that aligns with the Common Core State Standards approved by Michigan and more than 40 other states. The Department of Education had planned to offer the Smarter Balanced assessment this school year, which is aligned with Common Core but the Legislature intervened to ask the department to consider additional choices. The advantage of tests such as Smarter Balanced (which is being used by many other states) is that Michigan schools could more easily track their progress compared with schools in other states across the nation.

PREVAILING WAGE

The issue: Michigan’s prevailing wage law requires union wages and benefits for workers hired for state-funded construction projects. Some Republican leaders have suggested that the law be repealed, under the assumption that contractors who paid workers less would pass those savings along to the state in lower project bids.

COLLEGE ADVISING FOR HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELORS

The issue: High school counselors are not currently required to have training in college advising. Senate Bill 902 would require successful completion of a 45-hour course in college selection counseling.