LANSING ? Michigan Senate Majority Leader-elect Randy Richardville voiced openness Tuesday to the linchpin of Governor-elect Rick Snyder’s economic strategy, replacing the Michigan Business Tax with a 6 percent corporate income tax, but would not promise to support it sight unseen.

“We’ll certainly look at that,” he said. “We have to take a look at what exactly that looks like, more details than we’ve been given so far and determine whether or not we can go along with it the way that it is or if we need to make some adjustments to it.”

Richardville (R-Monroe) was formally elected Tuesday by the 26 incoming and returning Republican senators for the 2011-14 term as the caucus leader, making him the majority leader with the GOP having a 26-12 edge. The caucus also elected Sen.-elect Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) as majority floor leader and Sen.-elect Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton) as president pro tempore, among other leadership posts.

And Richardville announced that he was naming Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Twp.) as Appropriations Committee chair and Sen.-elect Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Twp.) as Finance Committee chair, putting those two senators in critical positions for the budget and tax policy, respectively.

Richardville was asked how Senate Republicans would handle the $1.6 billion shortfall in the 2011-12 fiscal year, especially given that Snyder’s business tax plan would expand the shortfall to $3 billion.

“We’re analyzing the problem,” he said. “It’s not going to be all through cuts, but there are going to be significant reforms. We’ll address the revenue problem, but there’s potentially some shifts in where the revenues come from. But we’re not anticipating any tax increases at this time.”

Then he said of Brandenburg, a staunch anti-tax Republican: “Take a look at Jack. You want to initiate a tax increase, you’ve got to get through Jack.”

Richardville addressed criticism in some conservative activist circles that he is insufficiently conservative. Especially during his time in the House from 1999-2004, Richardville supported some items that upset conservatives, like fee increases, a cigarette tax increase and other measures.

Richardville said Senate Republicans are committed to ending partisan gridlock in the Capitol, and that means more than just simply ending gridlock because the GOP now controls all levers of the government.

“What I think we’ve messed up in the past is mixing those (core principles) with the things that don’t cause a compromise to those principles,” he said. “There’s a whole lot of work in between those principles that we need to get to. … We understand that the pendulum swung pretty far to the right. If we start treating our colleagues on the other side of the aisle like they don’t matter, it’s going to swing pretty far to the left.”

And Richardville said Republicans would revive some of the Senate Republican reforms that failed to win approval this year.

Richardville said he anticipated relatively quick action on redistricting once the Census data is available. He said he already has set up, after talking with Senate Minority Leader-elect Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing), a structure for a redistricting committee that likely will have six Republicans and three Democrats.

“I think the sooner we get on it, the better off we are,” he said.

Further, Richardville expected Republican margins to grow on committees to reflect both their increased majority from 22-16, but also to handle the practical aspect of avoiding saddling each Democrat with seven or more committee assignments.

Richardville has been one of the most receptive legislative Republicans to the Detroit River International Crossing, and he said it would be an early priority next year. He noted he does not support the legislation in its current form, saying there is too much conflicting data, but supports having a new, government-owned bridge as part of the DRIC process.

“We’ve stalled enough on putting brick and mortar out and getting something done,” he said. “A big building project like that will help southeast Michigan, but more important than that, long-term, we have to look at the transportation infrastructure, and there’s a need there.”

Also elected to leadership posts were Sen.-elect Dave Hildenbrand (R-Lowell) as assistant majority leader, Sen.-elect Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair) as assistant majority floor leader, Sen.-elect Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) as majority caucus chair, Sen.-elect Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton Twp.) as assistant majority caucus chair, Mr. Brandenburg as majority caucus whip, Sen.-elect Darwin Booher (R-Evart) as assistant majority caucus whip and Sen.-elect Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) as assistant president pro tempore.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>