Rep. Tom McMillin never said the word "vagina" while speaking on the legislative floor. 

Instead, the Michigan Republican House of Representative member was denied by Democrats the chance to speak out in 2009 against a $100 million tax credit for a shuttered Ford plant in Wixom.

Then Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the tax credit could lead to more than 4,000 jobs. The proposed renewable energy park never materialized.

Democratic Rep. Lisa Brown of West Bloomfield, is getting international attention this week for being banned from speaking on the floor for saying: "I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina. But no means no," during a debate about abortion.

Stifling commentary on the floor of the House of Representatives has been a bipartisan effort in recent years. The Speaker Pro-Tem of the majority party has the authority to recognize a politician wanting to speak.

The Democrats denied Rep. McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, a chance to speak on more than one occasion, he said.

"I submitted a lot of amendments and asked to speak on them and would not be allowed," Rep. McMillin said. "(Democrat Majority Floor Leader) Kathy Angerer pulled me aside and made it clear that if I ever wanted to ask for a roll call vote, they wouldn’t let me speak."

Rep. McMillin said there was no other reason to stop him from speaking other than they had the power to do it. "I hadn't done anything out of order or anything like that," he said.

Republican Rep. Dave Agema of Grandville, said the Democrats had an unofficial ban on him speaking when they were in power because he was a conservative.

"I very seldom got recognized," he said. "It was a one-way street — their way or the highway. That's just the way they worked it. You kind of give up after a while. It was no use. Because I was very conservative, they didn’t want to hear what I had to say.

"We are a lot nicer to them than they were to us," Rep. Agema said.

Jack McHugh, the legislative analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said both parties have stifled conversation.

"The side that is complaining today is the side that will be doing the exact same thing when they regain the majority tomorrow," McHugh said.

In her May 25 blog, Lake Orion Public Schools Superintendent Marion Ginopolis said the district made $19 million in reductions since the 1999-2000 school year.

Teachers have not received lucrative step increases for two years and teachers are now paying 10 percent of their health care premiums. Yet, Lake Orion’s expenditures — adjusted for inflation — increased from $65.3 million in 1999-2000 to $78.2 million in 2011-12.

A major factor for the increased spending was the higher costs of the Michigan Public Schools Employees Retirement System (MPSERS). School districts pay a percentage of its total payroll for pension and retirement health care benefits.

Lake Orion’s contribution to MPSERS in 1999-2000 was $3.6 million. At the time, the district paid 11.66 percent of total payroll. By comparison, the district paid $4.4 million in health care costs that same year.

But in 2011-12, the MPSERS contribution rate increased to 24.46 percent and the district had to contribute $9.9 million. The MPSERS cost had almost equaled the district’s $10.3 million health care tab.

"With approximately 82 percent of our budget allocated to personnel, these increases in retirement costs and health care have had a significant impact on our expenses,” Ginopolis said in an email.

Michael Van Beek, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s director of education policy, said school districts have known about these expenses.

"Sure, MPSERS rates are determined by the state, but school districts (or at least the associations that represent them), by and large, have never been serious about making the system sustainable,” Van Beek said.

A Mackinac Center for Public Policy study in 2010 found that MPSERS was not likely to be affordable long-term.