Key votes this week in Lansing on Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget plan show that most local Republicans are adhering to the traditional Macomb maverick ways.
The House vote yesterday on the meat of the budget bill – the huge business tax cut, the revised pension tax, the $25-per-child provision rather than the Earned Income Tax Credit, the preservation of the 2007 “Granholm tax,” with the income tax staying at 4.35 percent – narrowly passed by a 56-53 margin after several Republicans balked.
Four of the six Republican “no” votes came from Macomb County – Reps. Anthony Forlini of Harrison Township, Andrea LaFontaine of Richmond, Ken Goike of Ray Township and Pete Lund of Shelby Township. Jeff Farrington, a rookie Republican from Utica, was the lone Snyder supporter in the Macomb GOP contingent.
Over in the Senate, the School Aid budget – with a $170 per-pupil cut for K-12 education, plus a previous action that guaranteed an additional $170 per student – deadlocked at 19-19. Again, several Republicans abandoned the GOP ship. Though the $12.4 billion plan was $225 million more than Snyder had sought, it took Lt. Gov. Brian Calley to break the tie and secure approval in the Senate.
The Republicans who voted “no” included Macomb’s two GOP senators – Jack Brandenburg of Harrison Township and Torry Rocca of Sterling Heights.
Brandenburg and Rocca also bucked the governor and GOP leadership on the $1.4 billion higher education budget, which passed on a 20-18 tally. Though the plan was softened by removing Snyder’s proposal to cut more from universities that raise tuition by more than 7.1 percent, the overall 15 percent cut obviously did not sit well with Brandenburg, Rocca and four of their colleagues.
