LANSING – House Minority Leader Tim Greimel said on Tuesday the ballot proposal to amend the Constitution and raise the sales tax rate by one penny has a “decent shot” at passing, but certainly is not a “sure thing.”
The transportation package passed by the Legislature last week is contingent on the voters approving the sales tax increase on the May 5 ballot. But Mr. Greimel (D-Auburn Hills), in an interview with Gongwer News Service, said that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“The more voters learn about the proposal, the more they are going to find it appealing,” he said. “It is important to keep in mind that if the proposal passes, it will fix the states roads and bridges; it will invest in education; it will devote all taxes paid at the pump to transportation; and it will provide substantial tax relief to low-and-middle-income working families who need tax relief the most.”
Greimel said there are no House Democrats who will campaign against the ballot proposal, and he said many will be outspoken in support it.
Greimel said negotiations between himself, House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall), Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing), Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) and Governor Rick Snyder did get “testy” at times, but by Wednesday night it became likely a deal would take shape.
However, he said it still wasn’t a sure thing until Thursday morning. The official deal was announced publicly late that morning. Greimel then said he was unsure if the Senate could get the votes to pass some pieces of the plan, including the restoration of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
“I was less concerned about whether or not the Senate would get to the two-thirds threshold for the sales tax increase and more concerned about whether the Senate would be able to muster a majority for some of the other elements in the deal,” he said.
The transportation deal came with some big wins for legislative Democrats, who have been pushing for the EITC restoration to its original level of 20 percent of a filer’s federal EITC, including a study on how much it costs to education a student in the state and an end to using School Aid Fund dollars for universities for the entire term.
“I think the lame-duck session was about as good Democrats could have hoped for,” Greimel said.
However, he said there were two reasons the lame-duck session – which ended just before 7 a.m. Friday – was less partisan than some in the past. He said the Democrats were needed for a transportation deal that would pass, and Republicans remain in control of the Legislature and governorship in 2015.
“They didn’t need to pass the bad public policies they support this lame duck,” he said. “They’ll have another two years to be able to do that.”
Greimel also noted that House Republicans will have a bigger majority in 2015 and the caucus is likely to be more conservative than the current one.
“Given those dynamics, I think there is a real risk we will see a much more extreme, right-wing agenda being pushed in the House,” he said.
BIPARTISAN WORK ON SCHOOLS: Greimel said during the next term, House Democrats will continue to fight for tax relief for low-and-middle-income families, as well as adequate education funding at all levels.
He said there is room to work in a bipartisan way during the 2015-16 term on education funding and reform.
“Depending on the details, and I want to emphasize depending on the details, having a single authorizer for schools in the city of Detroit, including charter schools, could make a lot of sense,” he said.
However, Greimel said it is important that the democratic process remains in place at publicly funded schools.
He also said one of the House Democrats’ larger priorities for the 2015-16 term will be getting the teacher evaluations, which died in the Senate last week, to Snyder. He said one of his biggest disappointments was that those bills did not clear the Legislature this term.
“Passing education evaluations is critically important to improving teacher effectiveness in the classroom, and we are going to continue to push to get those bills through next session,” he said.
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