Michigan Politics

One that the republicans don't need or want right now, but interesting none the less. Last Wednesday, the Republicans in the house, lead by Speaker Craig DeRoche pushed throuh a "1 Billion Dollar Tax Cut Plan," or at least, that's what they call it. Funny thing is, the budget is due October 1, and they're not done with it. Interesting thing is, Senate leader Ken Sikkema isn't going to play ball. Here we have an interesting situation involving three parties. One is Granholm, who offered a well thought out although poorly presented revamp of the Single Bussiness Tax. Her proposal is revenue neutral and she claims it will help out industries in need. Negotiations over the summer on the bill have proved fruitless and here we see the divergent Republican response. On one hand, we have the very intelligent veteran Ken Sikkema, who cares about passing a budget and doesn't give a shit about holding up appearances. On the other is the more or less rookie DeRoche, a second term State Rep with little prior experience who puts foreward a political bill that his own compadre in the Senate has no interest in. One explanation is that we have a carreer legislator looking out for the state and a rookie looking towards 2006. My feeling is that's the right one. Republicans haven't talked to each other in this state ever since term limits kicked out all the good ol' boys. Right here we have a case of the old versus the new. Ken isn't going out on his belly.