THE MOST DANGEROUS VOICE IN THE HOUSE?

Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, was singled out as a man to be silenced on Sept. 2. The freshman lawmaker rose to protest a bill granting a $100 million tax break for an advanced battery manufacturing facility that would go into the old Ford Wixom plant. McMillin wanted to use a recently released Mackinac Center study to tell the members of the House that the state was giving away far too much in exchange for the 300 jobs that the project would supposedly create, but Majority Floor Leader Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, would not allow him to do so.

According to the MIRS Capitol Capsule newsletter, House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Kewadin, confronted Angerer about shutting down McMillin (www.mirsnews.com — subscription required). Eventually, the Democrats relented — but still wouldn't allow McMillin to address the chamber. Instead, Republicans were permitted to select another member to protest the matter for McMillin. The job fell to another freshman, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, who "proceeded to dump on the tax credit, complaining that small businesses didn't want tax credits, they wanted across-the-board business tax cuts," according to MIRS.

"We've had an issue throughout the year," Elsenheimer told MIRS afterward. "We've had difficulty getting our voice heard ... every member is entitled to have his day on the floor."

This was not the first time McMillin had challenged tax breaks for a select few. On June 10, he had attempted to attach an amendment to a bill that would have given targeted tax breaks to businesses selected for special treatment by the state government economic planners at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. McMillin's amendment would have required the Office of the Auditor General to give a closer look at the data that the MEDC was giving to lawmakers.

This was McMillin's fourth attempt this year to force greater oversight of the MEDC, and this time he claimed to have collected the 22 signatures supposedly necessary under House rules to force a recorded roll-call vote on his amendment. But the signatures were ignored and the McMillin amendment was gaveled down on a "voice vote" — a parliamentary procedure that the party in power uses to avoid taking a real vote on a proposal. Often, as in this case, it is done when they don't want their members taking tough official stands on controversial matters.

The reluctance to give McMillin his votes is possibly a reaction to one vote that he did win earlier in the year. On March 12, he successfully persuaded a majority of his colleagues to approve an amendment to another special economic development tax break. McMillin's tactic on this day was to change the wording of the bill so that the tax break applied to all businesses, rather than just those approved by state government bureaucrats, very similar to the "across-the-board tax cuts" that Amash would speak of during the Sept. 2. dispute.

The victory was short-lived. According to MIRS, "even before the applause from the GOP side had died down, a motion to substitute a version of the bill without the McMillin amendment was adopted by a voice vote."

Frustration regarding this treatment boiled to the surface on June 26, right before the House adjourned for its summer break. That day, MIRS published a long story quoting "capitol observers" who were "grumbling" that the Republican minority in the Michigan House was being "shutdown during the legislative process" — perhaps being "steamrolled" more than any minority party in either chamber of the state Legislature had been in more than three or four decades.

"There is a persistent problem when it comes to recognizing members' rights to be heard on their amendments and at times record roll-call votes on their amendments," Elsenheimer told MIRS, in a statement that applied more to McMillin than any other lawmaker under the Capitol dome.

Taxed ENOUGH Already...

Genesee County voters went to the polls on Aug. 4 to decide the fate of a ballot proposal that would increase county property taxes by $100 million over 10 years to fund Hurley Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital owned and governed by the city of Flint. According to The Flint Journal, Friends of Hurley, a ballot committee organized in favor of the tax hike, raised nearly $500,000 to advocate for a "yes" vote. The Committee Against Tax Increases, a group created by activists from the Genesee Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party, was the only organized opposition and reportedly raised less than $5,000. Despite the 100-1 funding disadvantage, the TEA Party celebrated a razor-thin 50.71 percent victory after 62,727 ballots were tabulated.

The Journal reported that more than half of the campaign cash spent by Friends of Hurley went to Byrum & Fisk Advocacy, an East Lansing public affairs firm used by many Lansing politicians. Friends of Hurley communicated their message through mass direct mailings and television advertising.

With no money for mass mailings, television spots or professional political operatives, the Genesee TEA Party focused its limited resources on personal voter contact through door-to-door canvassing. This may have been a key to its success because — according to Cathy Tyler, one of the anti-tax activists interviewed by the Journal — many residents were unaware that a tax vote would be taking place.

The Genesee County Board of Commissioners voted 7-2 on May 26 to place the tax hike on the ballot. The millage would have increased property taxes for all county residents to benefit a hospital owned and governed by the city of Flint. Although regularly scheduled municipal elections in Flint coincided with the Aug. 4 date, only one other community in Genesee County had anything else scheduled for the ballot that day. Additionally, because Flint owns the hospital, some residents not residing within that city were under the mistaken impression that the tax hike and vote did not apply to them.

A clerk from one township in Genesee County told The Journal that many voters there would likely miss the vote because of this confusion. Her prediction was borne out. In contrast to the 221,598 Genesee County residents who voted in the November 2008 general election — representing more than 63 percent of those eligible — less than 63,000 participated in the Hurley millage.

Having bested the tax-hike supporters by only 887 votes, knocking on the doors of those non-Flint voters and getting them to the polls appears to have made a big difference for the TEA Party. Though a "yes" vote prevailed in every single precinct within Flint, the "no" votes carried the overwhelming majority of precincts outside of it. Gwen Jensen of Fenton told The Journal that she spent every day of the final month of the campaign distributing anti-millage literature. Her work appears to have paid off: The proposal was rejected by 78 percent of Fenton and Fenton Township, giving the "no" side a 2,276 vote cushion from those two communities alone.

"We changed the votes of people, because we informed them," TEA Party head Mike Gardner told The Journal on election night.  

The Lowdown is written by Ken Braun, senior managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. He may be reached at author@mackinac.org

[Editor's Note: "ad liberties" is a new regular column from the president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, publisher of Michigan Capitol Confidential.]

Confidence in government breeds complacency in politics. When people think government is handling things tolerably well, they see no reason to pay much attention to politics. When confidence sinks from low to lower, grass-roots political energy spikes upward. That's why people are now leaping off the sidelines and into TEA parties and raucous town hall meetings to protest sky-high taxes, exploding deficits and the government's attempt to take over health care. Smart politicians can seize this opportunity by exercising an oft-neglected part of the political anatomy: the spine.

The mouth is the part of the political body — if I may extend the metaphor — that promises things people want to hear without saying much about things people don't want to hear. The mouth promises only pleasure without reminding constituents there may be tradeoffs. "A chicken in every pot!" "Read my lips: No new taxes!" "Peace in our time!" The mouth says what itching ears want to hear, but may be vague about how the promises will be kept.

The spine has a different role. It disciplines the mouth. The spine and the mouth working together tell constituents both the promise and the price. And the spine makes sure the politician keeps the promise.

When people are politically complacent, politicians can get away with vague promises emanating from the mouth alone. When constituents are highly politically engaged, they want more than platitudes and promises. They won't give the benefit of the doubt. They have to hear precisely how the politician intends to follow through, because their confidence in government is so low.

"I will lower your taxes" is no longer enough. Neither is "I won't raise your taxes." People want to know exactly what programs will be cut and by how much.

"I won't cut essential services" is no longer enough. People want to know which particular taxes will rise, by what amount, or what non-imaginary source of money will fund the government.

I was trying to explain this in a good-natured way recently to a Michigan gubernatorial candidate who had asked the Mackinac Center for policy ideas. He pointed out the practical political danger for a candidate who "over-shares" how much his promises might cost. I could see what he meant: Walter Mondale promised to raise taxes and lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But this is not 1984; it's more like 1994. Confidence in government that year was very low for many reasons, including a health care debate. Newt Gingrich seized the opportunity by tapping into political discontent with more than platitudes. He explained precisely how he would follow through on his promises with a 10-point Contract With America. Enough people appreciated Gingrich's spine to help him sweep Republicans to historic victories in the House, Senate and state legislatures.

Spine has a way of appealing across the political spectrum. On Aug. 30, the Detroit Free Press, usually not a fan of most Republicans or limited government, praised Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, a Republican, for his proposed budget, which is balanced and would raise no taxes. Editorial Page Editor Stephen Henderson said the proposed cuts made him "a little gut sick," but lauded Bishop for producing "the only fiscally responsible option out there" at that time.

Henderson compared Bishop's effort to that of the governor, and wrote of Gov. Granholm, "I've seen mollusks whose spines weren't as gooey." Ouch.

House Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat, rose in the estimation of many when his mouth and spine promised a way to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in benefits costs by combining teachers' insurance with that of other state workers. His price: angering leading Michigan Education Association allies who derive millions of dollars from MESSA, their third-party affiliate that sells health insurance plans to school districts. The Mackinac Center's analysis of Dillon's idea concludes it's a step in the right direction.

In 1987, President Reagan had to fight his own state department to say at the Brandenburg Gate, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" instead of some promise like, "One day all Germany will be united and free!" One reason the wall fell two years later was that everyone from Moscow to Berlin knew Reagan was speaking from the spine, not just the mouth.

Office-seeking friends may chide me, but I have to say I don't see a Newt Gingrich out there on the electoral scene yet. No one seems to know how to tap into the tremendous energy surging through the grass roots right now. And none of Michigan's gubernatorial candidates has yet achieved a breakthrough moment, although any of them is capable of it. Opportunity is ripe, and it is early in the campaign.

Michigan today is a state of political skeptics. I can't shake my conviction that the one who first proposes a bold stroke and clearly articulates not just the promise but the price as well will earn enduring affection from readers of Capitol Confidential as well as other lovers of liberty and limited government. The grass roots are looking for someone to love. The first candidate who shows a lot of spine will have first dibs at the dance.

Link the promise to the price. The mouth and the spine. That's powerful politics.

Joseph G. Lehman is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.