LANSING, MI (WHTC) – The end of the current state legisative session brings some mixed sentiments to two women who represent the Lakeshore in Lansing.
To State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker of Lawton, the term “tame duck” is more appropriate than “lame duck.” She told WHTC News on Monday, “There was a push, obviously, from the House to bring up some very contentious issues (such as “dark stores” property tax laws and “rainy day fund” allocation changes), which I did not support because I thought that they needed to be well thought-out and vetted instead of being rushed through in the final weeks of the session.”
The Lawton Republican admitted disappointment that auto insurance reform legislation that the Senate had passed failed to clear the House. Schuitmaker feels that this issue, along with dealing with retirement benefits for state employees, will be among the top topics that the new Legislature will be working on when the new session begins next month.
One state lawmaker who won’t be working on those topics is Amanda Price, the Park Township Republican who is term-limited out of office at the end of this month. In her final appearance as a House Representative on “WHTC Talk of the Town” on Monday, Price told host Ed Ver Schure, “When I look at the totality of what we’ve been able to do in my six years in the House, we did a number of reforms, lifetime changes that I never thought we would actually do. The one thing that was left undone is no fault reform.”
The Park Township Republican’s name has been brought up by some Lansing political pundits as speculation on who would succeed the term-limited Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof of West Olive in the state Senate grows. Other names being bandied about include current House Representative Daniela Garcia and former state lawmaker Joe Haveman, who is currently involved with the non-profit Hope Network.
