Finally, a little normalcy in our television viewing….no more confusing proposal or election advertisements. In the wake of this years election that saw high voter turnouts and the most money ever, below is an overview of a few items that occurred nationally and statewide. Most notably the defeat of Proposal 5 and Proposal 6, which had potential devastating impacts on the heavy construction industry in Michigan. MITA staff sincerely thanks all of those who went out to the polls and voted against these proposals.
On the national front, President Obama received 54% of the vote in Michigan to return as President of the United States. Michigan also re-elected its entire Congressional delegation keeping the current 9 to 5 Republican split to the delegation. U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow also easily won her re-election bid for her 3rd term in the U.S. Senate.
In statewide politics, the Michigan House Republicans lost five seats, bringing down their majority in the House to a 59 to 51 margin. House Democrats came close in several races and surprised a lot of pundits in areas where they were thought to have had no chance of winning certain seats. Wasting no time, both the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House chose their leaders for the 2013 – 2014 legislative session. The majority party voted to continue under the leadership of Jase Bolger, electing him as Speaker in his 3rd and final term in the House of Representatives. The minority party called upon first termer Tim Greimel of Auburn Hills to lead their caucus. Representative Tim Greimel has been in office for several months filling in a vacancy left in the last legislative term but is still eligible for the full three terms beginning in January.
All six statewide proposals that were placed on this year’s ballot were defeated. This in and of itself sends a strong message to the elected officials in Lansing that the citizens expect the legislature to take care of the tough decisions and not put those issues on the ballot.
The most exciting news of election night for MITA was the defeat of Proposal 5 and Proposal 6. As you may recall, Proposal 5 would have required a two-thirds majority support of any future tax increases making any increases to funding for our transportation system in Michigan virtually impossible. It would have given a small number of lawmakers in the legislature, just 13, the ability to stop any funding increase they wanted to. Proposal 6 would have required a vote of the people before any construction of a new international bridge could occur. This could have halted the agreement between Governor Snyder and the Prime Minister of Canada to construct the New International Trade Crossing between Windsor and Detroit.
Both proposals were defeated by wide margins despite the backers of both proposals spending over five times the amount spent to defeat them. Proposal 5 was defeated 69 to 31 percent, clearly sending a message to the legislature that the public trusts their elected officials to make difficult decisions when dealing with tax policies. Proposal 6 was defeated 60 to 40 percent despite having over $33 million spent on television ads, mailings and phone calls.
This election had the potential of shutting the door on any potential future legislative solution to our funding problem on infrastructure in Michigan. Fortunately that did not occur and we continue to press forward in urging our elected officials to adequately fund Michigan’s transportation system. Just as it took hard work and dedication from all those within the MITA family to defeat proposals that would have taken our state and our industry backwards, it will take all of us united to convince our legislative leaders to do the right thing and support increases to funding.
