Tagged: randy richardville

Governor Rick Snyder and state Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) will meet this afternoon to discuss what should happen next with a stalled international bridge project proposal.

Richardville says he could potentially move the proposal to build a second bridge between Detroit and Canada out of the committee where it has failed thus far to gain enough support to move to the Senate floor.

Richardville has suggested moving the proposal to his own Government Operations Committee.

State Senator Mike Kowall (R-White Lake) chairs the committee currently handling the proposal. 

“I don’t want it to go to Government Ops. I started it, I want to finish it. I want to see it through to the end. Ultimately I don’t have a lot of authority to tell the majority leader what to do,” he said.

Kowall said he thinks the bridge proposal would face just as many hurdles on the Senate floor as it is in his committee to gain approval:

“Oh that’s just a microcosm of what’s going on, there’s a lot of discussion here, in caucus, outside, all over. So there’s a lot of discussion.” 

He continued:

“You ever go to the dentist and have a root canal done? Well it’s always a good thing when it’s over with, so I liken this to a root canal. No, I’d like it to be over one way or the other.” 

Kowall said one of the issues creating some division is whether a bridge proposal should include a measure to help members of the community that would be displaced at the new bridge location in Detroit.   

Governor Sndyer says he wants the issue approved by the end of the year.

State Senate Republican leaders hope to have a floor vote as soon as this week on building a new publicly owned bridge between Detroit and Canada. The proposal has struggled for support as many rank-and-file Republicans remain skeptical the bridge is a good deal for taxpayers despite Canada's promise to pay all the construction costs.

Republican state Senator Dave Hildenbrand supports the bridge, but said the campaigns against the bridge muddied the discussion and made the project harder to approve.

A proposal to build a second bridge between Detroit and Canada appears to be the cause of a fierce divide among Republicans in the state Senate.

The chairman of the committee handling the proposal does not seem to have enough support among Republican colleagues to vote on the issue.

State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said if that’s the case he will most likely take on the issue in a committee he chairs and move it along quickly.

“I don’t think we would need to take as much time to go through all the detail, but we have been following the process, we’ve been following the information, so we would still take a hard look at it and take some open testimony, but we’re not going to rehash everything that’s been done for the last nine months,” said Richardville.

Richardville says misinformation floating around in television ads and brochures have made the bridge issue more confusing and frustrating than it should be. He says the Senate could vote on the proposal within a couple weeks.

State Senate Republicans say they want to focus on proposals this fall that will help businesses create jobs.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says eliminating the Michigan Business Tax on small businesses was a good start. He says now it’s time to get rid of the Personal Property Tax that businesses pay.

“The government itself does not create jobs, all we can do is better the environment. And that’s what we’re attempting to do with the legislation we’ve put on the table so far, and what we’ll continue this fall.”

Richardville says the Senate will also take up measures this fall to reform education and regulate the medical marijuana law.

The law was approved by a wide margin of voters in 2008.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says the law is too vague.

“I have a real concern about those that would abuse this law and that somehow more would illegal marijuana would end up on the street, and eventually find its way into our school yards. That’s my big concern here.”

Senate Republicans also plans to take up legislation to eliminate the tax on businesses and factory equipment. Education reforms, and a ban on a controversial abortion procedure are also at the top of the party’s fall agenda.

Republican leaders in the state Senate say they will push for a February 28th closed presidential primary date.

That’s one week earlier than the National Republican Party rules allow. National GOP rules state that only four states are allowed to hold primaries before Super Tuesday in March without penalty.

Michigan is not one of those states. Penalties could include having convention delegates stripped.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says they plan to stick with a primary on February 28th.

“Michigan is going to be really relevant in the decision making process because of this date, but I don’t think we’re doing anything outlandish that would cause the national committee to be upset with us.”

The Michigan Republican Party has not specified a desired primary date. The party is leaving the primary date decision up to lawmakers.

The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, Robert Schostak, says he is not too concerned with being penalized for the decision:

“The penalties are somewhat unclear. They haven’t been determined by the committee in finality. But if we would be penalized by losing delegates and we were trading that for relevancy, my sense is that the Legislature and the state committee that would be ultimately deciding on this are okay with it.”

Both the Republican and Democratic parties in Michigan were penalized in 2008 for holding an early primary. The parties were stripped of half their convention delegates.

The primary election is estimated to cost $10 million. Taxpayers would foot the bill.

The old film incentives were scrapped in the tax overhaul approved by the Michigan legislature and the Governor.

They said the old film incentives, which gave production companies a 42% credit on total expenses in Michigan, was too costly ($115 million was spent last year, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy).

In it's place, a $25 million film incentive program for Michigan's next fiscal year (which starts October 1).

Now, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says he wants to improve the film incentives.

MPRN's Rick Plua filed this report:

Richardville says his new proposal would focus financial support in activities that reward spending on Michigan products, services, and workers.

He says investors have put money into expensive production facilities, and workers have learned new skills in the belief that incentives would attract more film business to the state.

 “I think the strength of that workforce, the strength of the investments we have in Michigan will cause us to win contracts in competitive situations versus other states. Once we’re done with that, then let’s analyze it to see what we can afford versus what the industry needs to sustain itself here in Michigan.”

Governor Rick Snyder’s office says he would like to see how Michigan’s new incentive program is working before making changes.

The Michigan Public Radio Network's (MPRN) Laura Weber says there are close to two dozen recall efforts in total across the state.

But some recall efforts are more organized than others.

The following 15 politicians in Lansing are facing recall petitions that have been approved by local election commissions:

• Governor Rick Snyder (R)
• Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R - Monroe)
• State Senator Darwin Booher (R - Evart)
• State Senator Judy Emmons (R - Sheridan)
• State Senator Mike Green (R - Mayville)
• State Senator Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Township)
• State Senator Jim Marleau (R - Lake Orion)
• State Senator Mike Nofs (R - Battle Creek)
• State Senator John Proos (R - St. Joseph)
• Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger (R - Marshall)
• State Representative Kurt Damrow (R - Port Austin)
• State Representative Nancy Jenkins (R - Clayton)
• State Representative Joel Johnson (R - Clare)
• State Representative Phil Potvin (R - Cadillac)
• State Representative Al Pscholka (R - Stevensville)
  

People who work in Michigan’s film industry hope efforts to boost the incentives for TV, movie, and video productions are successful.

They say the recent $25 million cap on the incentives makes them too small to attract big productions.

Chris Baum helps market the state to Hollywood with Michigan Film First and Film Detroit.

Baum says the state does not have to be as generous as it has been in the past to movie-makers, but it still has to put more money into incentives if it’s going to build a movie industry here:

"It’s not brain surgery. We've invited an industry here. We've promised them that we wanted them here," said Baum. "We need to continue to giving them conditions that allow themselves to establish themselves here and then down the road, they'll be so comfortable coming to Michigan that we'll be able to pull back on the the incentives further."

Baum says Michigan needs to have at least $100 million available for incentives if it’s going to attract the big budget movies that generate the most economic activity.

State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville is expected to unveil a plan this week to boost the state’s film incentives.

Governor Rick Snyder dramatically scaled back the incentives saying they offered a poor return to taxpayers.