Now that the gauntlet has been thrown, what are the chances that the Michigan business community might get behind the concept of a part-time Legislature in the State of Michigan? It might be too early to tell, since we don’t know all of the specifics of the plan, however one leading small business organization in the state says there could be support under certain circumstances.
The Michigan chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), reacted with interest today to the announcement by Lt. Governor Brian Calley that he is leading a ballot proposal to make the Legislature part-time.
Charles Owens is the State Director of the NFIB and he tells us, “NFIB has surveyed its members numerous times over the years on the issue of changing the state’s term limits law and each time they have shown support for leaving the law as is.” He quickly adds, “However, it is worth noting that the only time our members indicated support for a change was to repeal the term limits law entirely in exchange for a part-time legislature.”
Owens said that NFIB did support a petition drive effort in 2008 that would have created a part-time legislature and repealed the term-limits law. However, the petition failed to garner the number of signatures to make it on the ballot anyway, so it was a moot point that year.
Does this mean NFIB will be supporting the Lt. Governor’s effort? Owens says, “Not necessarily,” adding, “There are probably enough differences between the Lt. Governor’s proposal and what we supported in 2008 to warrant running it by the membership again before any decision would be made.”
For more information about the organization, you can visit www.NFIB.com.
