BlogrollRandom sections of our blogroll - changes when the page is refreshed |
Seon posted this on October 1st, 2007. Ok. Not thrilled about the MESSA "reform", as many of you know. But, it's the price Michigan paid for having a Republican Senate.
So here are some of the details of the 3 part deal that ended the 4 hour Michigan shutdown:
The income tax: First, we have a brand new income tax rate of 4.35%. This is an increase from 3.9%. It was passed in the House, 57-52, with Republicans Ed Gaffney and Chris Ward crossing over to vote with Democrats. Democrats Marty Griffin, Mike Simpson, and Lisa Wojno voted no.
In the Senate, the income tax was passed 19-19, with Lt Gov John Cherry casting the tie-breaking vote to make it 20-19. Cross-over votes were Republicans Patty Birkholz, Tom George, Ron Jelinek, and Gerald Van Woerkom, who voted YES. Democrats Glenn Anderson and Dennis Olshove voted NO.
Under this legislation, the income tax rolls back to 3.95% in 2011, and then to 3.9% in 2015. The income tax is expected to raise $765 million for the state in 2008.
The sales/service tax: The second piece is the bill that expands the 6% sales tax to a number of services, listed in another post. This will take effect December 1.
In the House, this passed 56-53. Only the Democrats voted in favor of this. Two Democrats voted against it: Marc Corriveau and Kate Ebli.
In the Senate, Democrat Glenn Anderson voted NO. Republicans Valde Garcia and Ron Jelinek voted YES, bringing the total to 19-19. John Cherry was once again the tie-breaker.
The services tax is expected to produce $613.8 million in 2008, and $751 million per year afterwards.
MESSA The MESSA "reforms": The final piece to the deal was the MESSA busting bill. This legislation requires MESSA to give up claims information, so that other providers can base their costs on MESSA information. This is designed to take market share away from MESSA. The House and Senate Fiscal Agencies both concluded that this would cost the state additional money, and that there was no demonstrable savings to the local districts. Despite the truth, reality, and irrefutable-in-your-face-facts, Senator Wayne Kuipers pulled this [...]
Seon posted this on September 30th, 2007. Despite the support of a handful of Democrats, the MESSA reform bill just died in the House. They cleared the board on it.
Note: for folks bouncing back & forth between us & Hoogendyk (there seem to be a handful), Hoogendyk’s claim that MESSA will save money is false. According to the Senate Fiscal Agency, it will cost the state money, and it cannot be determined whether or not it will save money at the district level. This reform is nothing more than a political attack on the MEA. For more info, view our MESSA diaries. Hoogendyk was one of the baggers (before bagger was cool) who was championing this reform, even though the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency demonstrated that the GOP MESSA “reform” would not save the state any money. In fact the SFA concluded that the GOP scheme might cost the state more money. And Hoogendyk with all his fiscal agency talent said, that’s not true!
Seon posted this on September 29th, 2007. I would have waaay more respect for the Republicans if they would just admit they were using this MESSA "reform" as a means to weaken their political opposition. But they won't do it.
If you recall, the Senate Fiscal Agency concluded that the MESSA reforms would COST the state more money, in administrative and IT costs. It also concluded that it could not determine any amount of savings at the local level. It specifically said that the reform would not "force or guarantee" any savings to districts.
Keep this in mind as Hoogendyk and the Republicans celebrate their victory.
Seon posted this on September 29th, 2007. The Senate Fiscal Agency's analysis of the MESSA busting bill SB 0418, concludes that the bill will cause additional administrative and informational technology costs to the state, and will not "force or guarantee" any savings to school districts. However, it "could make it easier for a self-funded, pooled benefit arrangement to occur."
Could make it easier. Not would make it easier.
The SFA notes that State-sponsored catastrophic stop loss (CSL) coverage is not included in SB 418, so the agency cannot predict whether school districts would be willing and able to pool and self-fund.
These bills do nothing but force MESSA to give up information on claims. So why would we pass bills that save no money, and actually cost the state more?
Because, in this humble outsider's opinion, this is just the first step. The next 'reform' in the next budget battle (which starts in 3 months?) will be to use the claims information made public by this act, to force MESSA prices (revenues) down, or to create pools designed to undercut MESSA, thus forcing districts to buy into a non-MESSA pool.
Baby steps toward the permanent Republican majority.
Sure, go ahead and laugh at my theory, but this is how the right wing operates. They start at the very bottom and quietly build an entire architecture of law that is designed to guarantee their own political dominance. Usually this law looks like something it's not. And they don't care if it takes decades.
If you recall, this MESSA busting bill is one of Bishop's budget demands. Why would he demand this, if it did nothing but cost the state more?
You can read the full SFA analysis here.
update: Michigan Liberal has more on this here.
<hr>Comments<hr>
Undercutting MESSA
I think undercutting MESSA is a very real possibility. Read this MESSA link and this PDF file also from their site. A "Let Locals Save" campaign in western Michigan gave misleading information on future rates in an effort to show that the Western Michigan Health Insurance pool was more cost effective than MESSA, when in reality MESSA cost 10% less.
Forcing MESSA to [...]
|
|
Conversation