LANSING, May 30, 2017- The state’s leading small business organization, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), reacted with interest today in the announcement by Lt. Governor Brian Calley that he is leading a ballot proposal to make the Legislature part-time.
“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,” said NFIB State Director Charles Owens. “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Owens said that NFIB did support a petition drive effort in 2008 that would have created a part-time legislature and repealed the term-limits law.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.
Does this mean NFIB will be supporting the Lt. Governor’s effort? “Not necessarily”, said Owens. “The Lt. Governor’s proposal is not the same as the one we supported in 2008. The biggest difference is that it would leave term limits in place so Michigan would have both a part-time legislature and term limits. Also, because this proposal is being pursued as a part of the Lt. Governor’s campaign for Governor in 2018, it remains to be seen whether this is a serious effort or a just a campaign tactic.”
