Lows and highs

Lacking the political starch to address the decades of neglect that burdens Michigan with some of the worst roads in the nation, the MICKEY HIRTEN Legislature punted, telling voters they will have to decide what to do. It authorized a ballot proposal for a May vote on a constitutional amendment to raise the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent and tossed into the mix all sorts of sweeteners. The ballot measure would add about $300 million for school funding, roughly $200 per student, drop the sales tax on fuel, restore some low income tax relief and pave the way for thousands of road construction jobs. Good old pork barrel politics.

If approved, the higher sales tax will add as much as $1.3 billion a year to the $2 billion already allocated for road repairs. By scheduling the vote for May, traditionally a very low-turnout election, a less representative sample of voters than shows up for a primary in November will determine the outcome. The lobbying effort for passage will be fierce, with construction interests, educators, teachers and some business groups pushing for a “yes” vote.

Opposing, so far, are no-tax groups like Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and Americans for Prosperity of Michigan, the local chapter of the Koch Brothers´ income-inequality support group. Usually, if they and their supporters are for something, I´m against it. But not this time.

Funding roads using sales tax revenue places the largest relative cost on those least able to pay. A sales tax is regressive.

An analysis in 2013 by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy found that for the poor, those earning $16,000 a year or less, Michigan sales tax payments consumed 3 percent of their total income.

As incomes rise, the relative burden of sales taxes decreases. Consider the legislators who initiated the road-funding plan. Their House and Senate salaries, a minimum of $71,685 a year, place them in the $52,000- to-$83,000 tier, where sales taxes account for just 1.8 percent of total income. And since many legislators have additional income, they really belong in the top tier, where the tax is about a half percent of annual income.

This, of course, isn´t why Americans for Prosperity of Michigan dislikes the proposal.

It would be just as opposed to a fairer plan like funding the roads with income tax revenue, a somewhat more progressive tax. But you take your allies where you find them.

And still feeling the glow of the holiday season, it´s possible to tease some positives from the just-ended session.

The Legislature passed revisions to the state´s Freedom of Information Act, which requires government to respond to people´s requests for information. In most sessions, the Legislature creates more exemptions to transparency; this year it added some teeth to the law. Public bodies will be required to cut their FOIA fees if they don´t respond to requests in a timely fashion. Fees for documents will be more consistent, and the new law establishes an appeal process for unreasonably high document costs. The bill awaits a signature from Gov. Rick Snyder. There were bills to help Detroit (and other struggling communities) by allowing homeowners to restructure their tax debt and avoid foreclosure, a grant of tax-exempt status to the long-proposed M1 city rail project and a measure helping refurbish neighborhoods.

The Legislature approved new quarters for the Senate, an expenditure that could cost as much as $70 million. It would have cost as much as $16 million to fix up the existing offices, but the entire process was shrouded in secrecy and that option was rejected. Think of the expense this way. There are 38 senators, which works out to about $1.8 million for each of them and the support staff.

A bill passed requiring police to collect DNA from anyone arrested on a felony charge. This conforms with a U.S Supreme Court ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union initially opposed the legislation, but it shifted to neutral when the measure was modified to require destruction of the data if there is no conviction.

The "what didn´t happen" side of the ledger includes bills to regulate medical marijuana, reform prison sentencing, lengthen term limits, apportion Electoral College votes in presidential elections and extend civil rights protections to the LGBT community.

The LGBT civil rights issue was at play in the push to legislate a Michigan Freedom of Religion Restoration Act. It too failed. The measure as proposed in HB5958 would “limit governmental actions that substantially burden a person´s exercise of religion.” It was perceived by opponents as an anti-gay measure that would allow discrimination in housing, the work place and commerce based on firmly held religious beliefs.

The standard at play is whether the government´s compelling interest outweighs the right to practice religion without government interference. The bill defined exercise of religion as practices “substantially motivated by a sincerely held religions belief, whether or not compelled by or central to a system of religious beliefs.”

That would be the Satanist display on the Capital lawn just before Christmas. Or the nativity scene. The Freedom of Religion Restoration Act attempts to regulate what should be tolerance on either side of the issue — that is, compromise. Keeping the issue out of the hands of ever-more partisan politicians and courts is a good non call from the Legislature.