Michigan Legislature Focuses On Fall Agenda After Distracting Scandal

LANSING (AP) — Lawmakers no longer sidetracked by a five-week sex scandal and cover-up involving two of their now-ex colleagues hope to redouble efforts this fall on an ambitious policy agenda, with — what else? — road funding again topping their priority list.

The coming weeks and months also will feature more debate on energy laws, a renewed attempt to change criminal punishment and an effort to address financial problems in the state-run Detroit school district and other schools. The prospect of voting on a business-backed initiative to repeal the state's law guaranteeing higher wages on government construction projects also looms if organizers collect enough voter signatures.

Legislators relish a return to normalcy after the expulsion of Cindy Gamrat and resignation of Todd Courser on Friday for misconduct including a bizarre plot to conceal their extramarital affair with an email of false and sexually explicit claims. The chamber was at a standstill for hours until Democrats who refused to vote persuaded Republicans to ask the attorney general and state police to investigate.

The departure of the embattled pair, along with Brandon Dillon stepping down in August to lead the Michigan Democratic Party, leaves Republicans with a 61-46 edge in the House. The number of "yes" votes needed to pass a minimum $1.2 billion road-funding plan with fuel and vehicle registration tax increases is now 54 instead of 56.

"It's not like we've been paralyzed here in Lansing," GOP Rep. Kurt Heise of Plymouth said while urging a disciplinary committee to recommend expelling the pair from office. "But this is clearly a distraction that has brought us into a very dark place and a place that we need to remove ourselves from as quickly as possible."

Republican Rep. Gary Glenn of Midland said people in his district wanted to talk about the scandal and "not all of the other weighty issues that make up the people's work." He is pushing back, for instance, against House Republican and Democratic leaders who favor further limiting competition in the electricity market — a major issue for legislative committees tasked with updating 2008 energy laws.

GOP Gov. Rick Snyder has four legislative priorities before year's end — roads, "distressed" schools, an energy rewrite, and a criminal justice overhaul that includes spending less on incarceration through sentencing, parole and probation changes.

Other bills awaiting action would boost early literacy, establish a new teacher evaluation system and clarify the legality of medical marijuana shops.

Snyder and legislative leaders continue talking about improving deteriorating roads by pumping more money into the transportation budget through a mix of tax hikes and permanently shifting money from other spending.

House Republicans in June passed a roads plan that would largely cut or shift spending. In July, Senate Republicans voted to increase both the 19-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax and 15-cent diesel tax to 34 cents.

A compromise proposal to raise $600 million more in revenue and divert $600 million in existing funds did not gain enough traction during a brief two-day House session last month. Now there is talk of $800 million in additional fuel taxes and registration fees couple with $400 million shifted from elsewhere — but no deal.

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