Rick Pluta

Today on It’s Just Politics, it’s all about the politics of wildlife. Or, wildlife management that is. Okay, might sound slightly boring so, how about this: “shooting wolves.” That tends to get people worked up.

In fact, groups are worked up. So worked up that they're gathering signatures right now to put a referendum on next year’s ballot to try and reverse the new state law that could clear the way for a wolf hunting season in the Upper Peninsula. We should point out this does not create a wolf-hunting season. Instead, it makes the wolf a game mammal, and allows the Michigan Natural Resources Commission to declare a wolf-hunting season if it sees a need.

Opponents say it’s too soon for a wolf-hunt, that the gray wolf just came off the endangered species list last year. But there have been some problems with wolves moving into "people territory," chasing pets, getting into trash… you know, being all wolfish. Eight wolves were shot last year in Iron Mountain by wildlife officials.

Governor Rick Snyder was on hand to help celebrate as the Michigan Strategic Fund approved state-paid incentives to 14 new business projects.     

The governor said lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a skilled workforce should make incentives less necessary in the future. But he said state assistance still has to be part of the mix. 

The group trying to reverse Michigan’s new law that allows a wolf-hunting season in the Upper Peninsula unveiled its campaign coalition today.

It includes the Humane Society and other animal rights groups, as well as Michigan’s American Indian tribes. The coalition is trying to put a referendum on the 2014 ballot.

Aaron Payment is the chair of the Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He said a wolf hunt would be an affront to tribal culture.

“In our tradition, in our culture, we believe that the wolf is our brother. And, I don’t mean this to sound very mystical, but in our long-standing tradition, we believe that what happens to the wolf, eventually happens to us,” said Payment.

Payment said a wolf hunt could also violate a 2007 agreement between Indian tribes and the state of Michigan.

Supporters of the law say state wildlife officials should be allowed to use limited hunting as a wolf-management tool. The gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list in Michigan last year.

Governor Rick Snyder delivered his third State of the State address this past Wednesday; the annual ritual when governors defend what they’ve done over the past 12 months and lay out their vision for the coming year. It’s a night for official Lansing to step out. Some people actually buy new clothes for it. There are receptions and parties afterward, which goes largely unseen by the public, who just tune in for the speech and opposition response. That is, of course, if they tune it at all.

The State of the State speech – and, nationally, the State of the Union address – is a challenge: it’s long. It’s a laundry list of policy and wonky, political-speak. It’s hard to keep people’s attention. And, we’re not just talking the TV or radio audience. It’s hard to sometimes even keep the attention of the people in the House chamber where the Governor delivers the speech.

In order to try and spice things up a bit this year, Governor Snyder literally took it down a level. He delivered his address from the clerk’s perch on the dais of the state House of Representatives instead of from higher-up where the state House Speaker presides over the session. Snyder wanted to do it standing on the floor of the House, walking around with a wireless headset. No notes. Very Silicon Valley, tech company, CEO style.

Governor Rick Snyder made his pitch for higher taxes and fees to pay for roads in his third State of the State address.

He says Michigan needs at least a billion additional dollars in the coming year to pay for badly needed repairs to the state’s ailing infrastructure.  He may also need a plan to repair his strained relationships with Democrats to get what he wants.

Governor Snyder will deliver his third State of the State speech tonight.

He says he’ll offer a plan to raise a lot more money to fix roads and bridges and improve rail corridors. He says Michigan’s gas tax needs to be updated to reflect the changing realities in how people drive and the vehicles they buy.

"It would likely be a combination of features so you could be talking about fuel tax, but also registration fees because you do have concerns about the long term in terms of people going to electric vehicles and others who won’t be paying in," said Snyder.

The governor says he knows it won’t be easy to sell higher taxes and fees to the Legislature and the public, but he says they’re an investment that will save money over the long term.
    
The governor says he also intends to talk about the Great Lakes in his address, and matching workers’ skills to jobs.

A ballot campaign will launch this week to overturn a new law that allows the state to establish wolf hunting seasons in the Upper Peninsula.

The campaign Keep Michigan Wolves Protected will appear before a state elections board on Thursday to get its petition approved for circulation.

Jill Fritz is the Michigan director for the Humane Society and the leader of the petition drive. She said the gray wolf was only recently removed from the endangered species list.

The 97th Legislature of the state of Michigan began this week, having still not shaken off the hangover of last year, as Republicans forced through controversial issues like right-to-work during last month’s lame duck session. And, it’s probably fair to say that this is more than a double-aspirin hangover.

There are however, some efforts toward mending some of the very hard feelings leftover. “This past year has strained relationships,” state House Speaker Jase Bolger said on the House floor, “however, we can and should leave that past behind us.” Of course, that’s easy to say when you’re not the one still spitting the sand out of your mouth. But, Democrats and Republicans did negotiate for a peaceful opening day.

Yet, Democrats and unions have made it plain that forgive and forget is not in the cards.  They want the last two years, especially everything that happened in December, to be the main topic of conversation in Michigan politics for the next two years. And it certainly seemed like another thumb in their eye when the Michigan Economic Development Corporation paid for an ad in the Wall Street Journal touting Michigan as the nation’s newest right-to-work state under the banner of the very successful and super popular Pure Michigan brand. Democrats say it’s politicizing the brand and some marketing experts are even saying it might not have been the wisest choice.

Over the next two years, the state of Michigan should recover about 40 percent of jobs lost during a nearly decade-long recession, says one University of Michigan economics professor.

George Fulton, director of the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, told a group of state officials that Michigan is expected to enter its fourth year of a moderate but sustained economic recovery.

Speaking at the state’s biannual revenue-estimating conference Friday, Fulton said Michigan still has progress to make.

A divided Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld extending health benefits to the live-in partners of state employees.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette challenged the state Civil Service Commission agreement with public employee unions.

Among other things, the attorney general says the policy violates Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions.

But the court’s majority said the policy makes no distinction between people in same-sex relationships and heterosexual live-in partners.        

New drivers in Michigan will soon face restrictions on cell phone use while they’re behind the wheel.

Governor Rick Snyder signed “Kelsey’s Law” Tuesday.

It bans cell phone use by teen drivers who still have their probationary licenses unless they use a hands-free device or are reporting an emergency.

The law is named for 17-year-old Kelsey Raffaele. The 17-year-old Sault Sainte Marie girl died in a car crash two years ago while talking on her cell phone.

Her mother, Bonnie Raffaele, lobbied for the law and attended the signing ceremony.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway has resigned.

That news became public just hours after an ethics complaint was filed against her, along with an unprecedented request that she be suspended from the court.

The state Supreme Court had never been asked to take this kind of disciplinary action against a sitting justice.

Before the court acted on her suspension, Justice Hathaway’s attorney said she had already agreed to resign and won’t participate in any more cases. Hathaway’s resignation becomes official on January 21st.

The complaint accuses her of fraud and money laundering in a real estate deal, as well as lying about it to the Judicial Tenure Commission.        

Hathaway still faces a federal lawsuit that seeks to seize her Florida vacation home.         

Hathaway is a Democrat elected to the court in 2008. It will be up to Republican Governor Rick Snyder to name a replacement.

Update 4:26 p.m.

A lawyer says embattled Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway will retire on Jan. 21.

Steve Fishman tells The Associated Press that Hathaway filed the paperwork on Dec. 20. He made the disclosure Monday after a judicial watchdog agency filed a complaint and asked the Supreme Court to suspend Hathaway over a series of suspicious real estate transactions.

Fishman says the Judicial Tenure Commission was told about Hathaway's retirement in December. He says the filing of the 19-page complaint was a "gratuitous" move.

The commission says Hathaway committed "blatant and brazen" violations of professional conduct in the 2011 short sale of her home in Grosse Pointe Park. Hathaway and her husband put a debt-free Florida home in a relative's name, but regained the property when the Michigan sale was completed.

2:48 p.m.

The Michigan Supreme Court will be asked for the first time to suspend a sitting justice for misconduct.

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission has filed a formal complaint against Justice Diane Hathaway. The disciplinary board has also asked the court to suspend Hathaway while the proceedings play out.

She has 14 days to respond to the complaint. Hathaway is accused of ethics violations for allegedly using property swaps to arrange a short sale that saved the couple hundreds of thousands of dollars -- a loss that was swallowed by the bank. The U.S. Attorney in Detroit has also filed a lawsuit against Hathaway.

It’s the first It’s Just Politics of the new year and we took advantage of our sabbatical to ponder what might be the big political news in 2013. We say “might” because, well, really, who would have thought at the beginning of 2012 that our biggest political story would be Michigan becoming a right-to-work state? The biggest story out of a year already filled with intrigue, political gossip and bombshells.

Right-to-work consequences

Certainly, there’s already intrigue afoot over how Democrats and labor are going to respond to the passage of right-to-work. It can be argued that the escalation really began in 2011. That’s when the Michigan Education Association, in particular, responded to some Republican anti-union legislation by launching a recall effort. They succeeded in recalling state Representative Paul Scott, then-chair of the state House Education Committee.

Skip ahead to November 2012 and Proposal Two. Prop Two failed, and, then, voila!, Michigan the country’s 24th right-to-work state. Now, that’s just a simple version of what’s a much more complex tale. But, it does give one a sense of how politics is played here in Michigan… kinda reminds us of Sean Connery’s line in “The Untouchables."

Connery: He pulls a knife. You pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital. You send one of his to the morgue.

When talking about Michigan politics, Newton had it right, “to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.”

Retaliation

Unions and progressives could try to challenge what happened in the lame duck session on the November 2014 ballot; not just challenging right-to-work but the new emergency manager law, too. The new EM law is a rewrite of the 2011 law that voters rejected via referendum in November. The organizers of that ballot drive are now crying foul, saying the new EM law is similar to the one that voters already said "no" to.

Meanwhile, Governor Snyder and legislative Republicans made it impossible for voters to repeal this new EM law. We’ve talked about this often on It’s Just Politics: lawmakers can make it impossible for voters to repeal a law by adding money – appropriations – into the measure. Voters cannot repeal legislation with money in it. So, lawmakers added appropriations to the emergency manager and the right-to-work laws.

But, that doesn’t mean opponents still can’t go to the ballot.

Governor Rick Snyder says he’s keeping a close eye on the “budget cliff” discussions in Washington and how they might affect Michigan.

Governor Snyder says the state’s finances are already tight, and he’s concerned about the possibility of spending cuts from the federal government.

“There’s a real issue with the fiscal cliff out of Washington as to what could happen and what they could cut at the state level that could create some severe stress,” says Snyder.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law abortion regulations supporters say protect women but opponents denounce as a backdoor assault on the right to terminate pregnancy.  Critics contend the new regulations on clinics could force some of them to shut down.

The Republican governor who has said he opposes abortion signed the contentious measures Friday that passed the Legislature this month.